Pokemon Crystal Mind
by DIM666 - Insane Leader
Summary: Loose Adaption of the G/S/C/HG/SS timeline. Takuya Serizawa has finally began his Pokemon Journey. Along with his Jolteon and Eevee, he's ready to take on the world! A world ready to swallow him up in a struggle for power as the definitions of right and wrong become blurred. Deconstruction Fic, Eventual Pokephilia.
1. Goodbye Vermillion, Hello Kanto!

I've developed an OC character, and I'm placing him right in the center of the entire Pokemon Universe's Kanto reason about three years after Red/Blue/Yellow, basically taking place at the same time as Gold/Silver/Crystal.

The goal of this story is to present a more 'mature' world of Pokemon without shattering that which made it interesting to begin with. In a sense, it's a Deconstruction fic. After about 10 or so chapters, I'll be partnering him up with a character from one of the main games, and while they'll be together the relationship they have will be more and less then a normal friendship or romantic relationship. While there is going to be eventual Pokephilia, the goal is to give it a purpose more then just 'Pokemon suddenly become hyper-sexualized and get boned or bone someone else.' Sensitive, though not necessarily 'dark' topics will be covered, and again, this will be beyond just basic sexuality. Some of these topics may actually be things that have been resolved in our world, but do to such a radically different culture and world, will be tackled from a different angle in this story

This is going to be limited to Pokemon of the 1st and 2nd gen for about the first 20 chapters, just the first 251. The reason I stopped there was because A). While growing up, I lost interest in Pokemon after the 2nd gen, so the first two gens is what I'm most familiar with, and B). Just writing up Kanto, Johto, and the Sevii Islands. After around chapter 20, I have things set up to broaden the scope to include Gen 3 and Gen 4 Pokemon.

If you are here for the typical "Trainer (insert name here) goes on a Pokemon journey, gets lucky, wins all the badges, and bangs all the people/pokemon/trainers/gym masters in the process" you may have come to the wrong place. IN addition, this is likely going to be a LOOOOONNGGGG running story.

* * *

Several hard yanks on the door earned not a budge. The male yanked at it to make sure that it latched. Taking the keys in his hand, he tossed them up into the air, grabbed them as they fell back down, and whistled a soothing tune. He walked to the side of his house, kicking a basement window and causing it to swing inward several inches. Takuya dropped the keys inside of the window pane, then yanked the border hard and shut it back up.

The human slung a large black and blue backpack off of his shoulders, dropping it onto the ground and rummaging through it's contents. "Berries, check. Batteries, Check. Glowstick, check, Sleeping back with Spaceblanket, Checks, First-Aid Kit 1 and 2, check. Salve, check. Data-trasnfer and Ethernet cords, check." He dug a bit deeper, pulling out a red handkerchief with black and yellow stripes cutting through it at irregular intervals. "That's supposed to be in with the Sleeping bag...I'm not unpacking all of this stuff. The sleeping bag takes up almost all the room this thing has." He crammed the cloth back inside, zipping the two compartments back up. His hands went to one of the lower side compartments, unzipping one side revealed a GoPro camera while the other side revealed what appeared to be a small stand. "I've got everything." The human stood up, throwing the backpack over one shoulder, and after a bit of fighting adjusted it back on firmly.

"Jupiter! Eon!" He shouted out, encouraging several Fearrows to flock out of the nearby trees. It didn't take long for a Jolteon to come bursting out of several bushes not to far away, the spiky yellow and white fur on it's body contrasted sharply with his muzzle and paws, both which were dirtied from what had likely been roughhousing around.

Shortly afterwards a much smaller quadreped stumbled out, running up to the human male. It's bushy brown and white fur plainly marked it as the pre-evolution of it's species, coupled with it's large black eyes. The white sections of it's fur caked in dirt and what was probably saliva from the Eeveelution. "Vee!"

"Sorry to do this to you guys. You know how much I hate having to coop you up in here, but I'll let you both out once we're on Route 11." From his belt he grasped a pair of half-red/half-white balls, with a white button in the middle. Pushing the buttons he tossed the pair of balls into the air, as they opened and a curved stream of energy filled into the open spheres as the two pokemon were converted into energy, occupying the space within the balls in mere seconds.

He quickly put the two balls back on his belt, slipping the clips on the back of them over the leather strap, the one holding Jupiter in front of his right hip and Eon's in front of the left one. Takuya looked up to the sky, taking a full breath of fresh air. He tightened his backpack's straps over his shoulders, and flipped the collar for his jean jacket up.

Crouching down, his left foot and respective hiking boot sprawled out behind him, his right one tucked up under his body, and placing both arms out in front of him, he tensed his muscles for a quick run. Probably the last one he would have in his home town for several years. Like an in-audible gunshot went off, the male sprung out of the crouched position, and despite the heavy weight on his back, both feet propelled him forward at a decent clip, distance being put between him and his family home.

Living in Vermillion had it's perks, an interesting if not fragile balance between technology and nature providing one of the safest living environments across the Kanto Region. This could be evidenced by the cleaned streets, countless trees that dotted the sidewalks, and thick green grass in the yards of the various houses that lined the roads. As the wind whipped through his hair, a smile spread across his face, the knowledge that he was leaving something familiar behind for something new beckoned him to run faster and push harder.

Turning a corner on one of the streets, he could see the eastern gate, still wide open as a pair of city guards, both police officers, waved at him from a distance. Takuya waved back, quickly closing the distance between them, and shortly after-wards inverting the situation after passing through the gate. Now putting steps between himself and the city he had learned to call home. Now on route #11, everything was going to be different. Several assorted people could be seen on the path, quickly looking at the person as he breezed by them.

"Farewell Vermillion! Hello, Kanto!"

* * *

The female sat atop of the desk, crossing one of her legs atop of the other. "There was no reason to call me down in such a hurry."

"You said you had more pokemon to send to me, and I wanted to see them first hand, before they got away!" The much older voice remarked, kicking his foot against a machine. "If only this box worked!"

"Just because the PC-Transfer didn't work doesn't mean I couldn't wait. You called me all the way out of Johto, in the middle of my challenges, just to basically tell me 'hey, my machine is broken, and I'm an impatient professor that needs to see new pokemon now!'"

An exasperated groan came from the older man, and he sat down in a chair, rubbing his temple.

"Oak, you've contributed so much to the scientific community." The feminine character jumped off of the table, adjusting the dingy white lab coat she had overtop of a bright red form-fitting shirt and yellow short-shorts. "Elm has been telling you, and your assistants have all been telling you to close up shop. You can at least spend the last of your days content with what you have done, instead of worrying about what you haven't."

"Kris, when I become so old that I can't tell anyone what I know, then someone needs to fill in the..." He stopped for a few seconds, thinking of the right term. "Hole..., and while my grand-daughter is doing a great job of that..." He sighed again. "I don't know what I'm saying."

"Look, in the short amount of time I've been with you, I've collected 40 of the 98 Johto pokemon you wanted data on, and captured many copies of the Kanto pokemon just on my short trip from Vermillion to get here. Daisy can pick up the slack easily with my captures alone, especially with her special love for the creatures also. Agonizing over it, it won't help you at all. I know that no one will believe the records you have on the Legendary Birds or that Mewtwo thing, but you've benefited so many people."

"Maybe I can get Red to hunt down the Legendary trio again so I can prove my findings."

"Red is gone, remember? He's been missing for two years."

A moment of silence, and the old professor proceeded to rub his eyes. "I know, I know. I just keep forgetting that stuff. The important stuff."

"Blue might be able to help your daughter out with the last piece of your quest. He captured some pokemon we didn't even know existed, and they are siblings, Daisy and Oak that is."

"Who?"

"You're grandson, champion for a day?"

A moment of hesitation. "Oh yes...maybe I could call him up."

"But you need to retire. The Alzheimer has set in heavy, and I don't think I can capture the remaining 55 pokemon, and the various Legendaries, before you finally become unable to recall major information."

"I know, I know." The old man waved the female off, reaching over to a corded phone and picking it up. "Go on ahead...Leaf?"

"Kris. Leaf is your grand-daughter's friend. I'm the girl you hired from Johto."

"Go on ahead Kris, get me some more pokemon. Maybe Blue will answer my call and help me out here."

Kris adjusted her hair, the bright teal braids that had been sprayed for years into a sharp V-Shape down and up resiting the influence of her touch. "I'll see you around professor." She dismissed herself, heading to the exist of the lab, the noise of her running shoes hitting the floor the only thing that filled the room other then the dialing tone.

* * *

A pokeball quickly crossed the expanse, hitting a dizzy Mankey as it stumbled blindly about. The ball impacted the creature, and landed beside it, opening up and converting the fighting-type pokemon into a more containable form. It shook once, then another shake.

Only for it to suddenly explode, the pokemon that was briefly inside exposed to the world once again, just as confused as ever.

A frustrated woman stomped the ground, her short white skirt and collar of her green shirt blowing in the wind. Across her face spread a disappointed look, and she grasped another poke-ball on her waist. She pulled her arm back, ready to throw the small piece of spherical technology like a baseball.

"I'll show you how to do it." A masculine voice remarked, and an orange-headed male stepped behind her, placing his body right behind her. The young woman stepped back into his form, and he wrapped his left arm around the female's midsection, holding her close. The orange-headed male lightly held the hand of the female, helping her toss the red and white sphere. "You've got it, you've got it girl...Try tossing it now!" He remarked, letting go of the brown headed female's hand as the dual-colored sphere crossed the expanse. It smacked against the monkey-like fighter, vaporizing it into data energy and pulling it into the sphere. The ball twitched once, twice, and a third time before settling in place.

The woman turned around, clasping her hands in joy with a large smile on her face.

"I told you so. Am I a good teacher, or what?" Blue Oak remarked, the former champion running his hand through the female's hair, causing her to blush deeply at the move.

Their moment was interrupted by a ringing noise coming from one of the pockets on his jeans. He reached in, pulling out a retro looking Pokedex. "Gramps..." He snarled, then took the device and chucked it several feet away. "I told you, I don't want to smell your face again!" His hands ran through his hair, the sound of anger burning through the sigh he let out afterwords. He leaned against a nearby tree, giving a cruel stare to the piece of technology as it rang for him.

The female came up next to him, setting her hand on the Gym Leader's shoulder. "I'll be fine. I just need to push that to back of my head. After what happened when you and Atio met him." He groaned, then looked at the female. "Where is your brother anyway? It's not like we came out here for only you to benefit from the exercise."

The female shrugged her shoulders as to suggest a lack of knowledge.

"Figures. He thinks he's such a He-Man, running off on his own to prove himself. Let's go get him, shall we?" He stood up again, only for the pokedex to make another ringing sound, this one a decidedly different tone. The male sighed, walking over and picking the device up.

"Yeah...This is Oak." A moment of silence.

"Ok, I'll be there shortly." The call was ended right afterwords. "Find your brother. We have to head back to Viridian. Some important business has come up."

She nodded, then scampered off toward the thicker parts of the woods, looking for their other companion. As she left, Blue walked over to the sphere that she had thrown earlier, picking it up and staring at it briefly.

"At least there will be something to break up this mundane existence." He turned the small piece of technology in his hand, before clipping it onto the belt he was wearing. "Atio! We're shipping out!"

* * *

I have always struggled with opening first chapters of stories and first paragraphs of reports. Hopefully this was enough to garner interest, as I was terribly dis-satisfied with the first version of this.

Make no mistake, Takuya will be the main character. However, Kris and Blue will come into the story later on and be important secondary characters throughout also.


	2. Electric Troubles

Now the fireworks begin in earnest. Let it be known that I already have this story typed up to about chapter 10 right now, and I hope to stay ahead of my uploading speed. It will be difficult with College, Jobs, and my obsession for gaming (Got an Xbox and playing MGS2 Substance and Silent Hill 2, yipee!). But I'm up for the challenge. Here we GOOOO!

* * *

Finally stopping his long-lasting sprint, Takuya slapped his left hand onto the rocky mini-mountain beside him. It took some time to catch his breath, but it didn't mean his attention was off. "Jupiter, Eon! Come -heave- on out!" With his right hand, he grabbed a pair of pokeballs that he stored on the front of his belt. Their large size made it difficult to hold both in his hand, but he tossed the both up. Almost simultaneously, they discharged a beam of white energy out of them, re-shaping back into the forms of the quadruped pokemon.

"Welcome back guys. Sorry about that hold-up." Taking one last deep breath, he continued to address his 'team'. "You know how the police get edgy when they see pokemon out of their balls, regardless of one's background. He bent down, running his hand through the spiky and thick white mane of the Jolteon, sparks flying up as he did so. The Eevee jumped forward, rubbing against the teenager's leg as it re-acquainted itself with the familiar face.

"Jolt!"

"Danm my inability to converse with these creatures." Takuya reached into his jean jacket and pulled out a camera. While it powered up, the human stood back up, aiming his camera at the large stone mound. "Digglet Cave. If this is going to be a capable team, we need to be able to take advantage of our strengths before our weaknesses come into play." He looked toward the cave that was slightly off-center in the unnatural mountain. "Pewter City is often the starting gym for many trainers. While I myself would rather have started in my own home town, neither of you are used to fighting and we need to take advantage of your resistances to rock and ground types." He looked back at his two Pokemon, the unevolved one starring intently while the electric type scratched an itch behind his left ear. "That is why we're heading through here first. Not only is this gave a quick jump to Pewter city, it might get you used to battling."

The entrance to the cave was a bit shorter on the whole then Takuya's normal body height. As such was the case, he had to bend down a little bit to get in. "Let's go!" Motioning his hand behind him, Jupiter and Eon quickly followed suit.

The interior of the cave was dark, but this did not become a blinding issue as the trio proceeded farther into the cave. This was aided by several assorted holes poked in the ceiling far above. These let light filter in through the ceiling, allowing some visibility within. Maybe to farther the advantage that the younger leader had, Jolteon's bright yellow and white fur occasionally sparked from it's naturally unstable electron flow. Between the leader and the evolved creature was the young Eevee, her eyes wildly swaying back and forth between the various rocky walls and the uneasy noises coming all around. It's eyes gazed upward, just in time to see a darker-then-normal shadow descend from above toward it.

Several rocks fell around the party's middle member. Takuya and Jupiter both sprang back, the electric type's fur bristling with electric charges at it readied for a potential battle. Its nose flared, trying to see if any definite enemies could be smelled out. The human's reaction was plainly much different, his though going straight to his safety of the small pokemon. "Eon! Eon!"

"Vee!" He breathed a sight of relief, glad to see that nothing had injured the young creature. However, Jolteon's back intensified into a colorful electric aura. It caught the notice of the trainer, who posed a question with concern. "Jupiter, what is it!?"

The ground shook a little bit, and not far away from Eon the earth raised, exposing a roundish head. "Dig...lette?"

Eon stumbled back a bit, while the Jolteon jumped into the air to prepare an attack, seeing the ground-type as an offender trying to attack it's illegitimate 'sibling'. "Jupiter, NO!" Jupiter landed on the ground, skidding to the side as the earthen pokemon observed the party. "Jupiter, let Eon fight this battle. She'll need to learn at some time."

His focused switched to his startled female. "Eon, Tail-Whip!" The brown-furred creature stumbled a bit, unfamiliar with such a situation, feeling expectant pressure from it's owner and it's 'sibling'. Regardless, it did carry out the attack, rushing toward the half-burrowed creature and striking it in the side of the head with it's bushy tail.

The semi-submerged opponent wasn't given the option of being knocked back, it's lower body kept in place by it's placement within the ground. In retaliation, the cave's native growled, trying to intimidate the guided fighter. "Don't let it mess with you Eon! Tackle it!" The smaller Pokemon rushed it's opponent, tackling it in the front of the head, knocking it's head a bit higher out of the hole it was in. With a move occurring at such a close range, the Digglet hadn't a chance to dodge, and it was rendered unconscious by the Normal-type.

"Vee...?" After not being intimidated or attacked again afterwards, the smaller creature crept up to the defeated opponent, apprehensively smelling it in confusion. Takuya walked forward to it, crouching down and putting his thumb and left index finger on it's head. "It's fine. The bump on the head won't do any major damage."

The earth then subsided a few feet away, and a pair of separate digletts 'spawned' from beneath the ground, rather it was due to the noise of the combat or to back up their fallen compatriot didn't matter. Both appeared to be ready to fight. Aggressively, the yellow and white quadruped called into the sky, bolts of electricity spraying from it's back and smashing into the two opponents, forming splits in the ground all the while.

"Jolteon, Sand Attack! Thundershock won't be effective enough!" Indeed, the result had caused no damage to the earthen pokemon. The creature listened in agreement, charging forward toward the opponent before suddenly stopping mere inches away from it's foes, kicking up a shower of dust onto the enemy, blinding them. In retaliation, the closest one did the same technique, albeit blindly, shoving dirt and sand into Jolteon's face. The second one tunneled underground, appearing beneath Jupiter and trying to scratch his rear legs.

The quadreped didn't take very nicely to this. He whipped around, tackling this opponent head on while leaving his rear now open for the other one. "Tail-whip the one behind you!" While technically it was more of a kick to the face as he didn't have much of a tail as much as he had a 'small backbone extension' with a spiky display of yellow fur above his rear legs. Regardless, it did the job, keeping his other opponent from seizing an opening.

However, the one in front was already back on the offensive, pulling back into the ground and rapidly shaking the ground beneath it's opponent, trying to use an Earthquake technique to disorient and open up more offensive points. Jupiter was indeed disoriented by this, and in another attempt to intimidate, the other Diglett growled at it's opponent. It's effectiveness increased slightly considering that the electric type was not able to see exactly where it was coming from.

Jupiter leaped off of the shaking slap of earth, facing it's opponents one more time just as the second one resurfaced. "Headbutt and Tackle afterwards, they're lined up perfectly!" The aggressive Pokemon rushed forward, lowering it's head even with it's recently re-surfaced opponent and smacked it face-to-face. Rather then letting this impact stop it's momentum, the Jolteon jumped over it, continued running, and plowed it's shoulders into the head of the remaining Diglett. This technique reduced the second opponent into another unconscious heap, and the quick Pokemon spun around to face it's remaining foe. "Blind him with Sand-attack!"

The move's effectiveness was nullified. Diglett burrowed beneath the ground once more, dodging the attack and leaving the angry electric type flustered with the turn of events. "Keep you guard up! Hit it with another Tackle when it surfaces!"

Surface it did, just on Jupiter's left side. Before it could dodge or attack, Jupiter turned around, and nailed it head-on with a short-distance tackle. The noise echoed within the chamber, and the remaining foe plainly went 'out' of commission.

"Heh. That was really effective!" Then, remembering a line from one of his favorite games... "Especially against Living Things!"

The ground shook a considerably larger amount now, and the pair of pokemon along with the trainer turned to face their right side as a large slab of loose earth and rock tumbled downward. Assorted calls of the various ground-type creature's could be seen from the various tunnel formations from where the section of the ground gave way. Calls of the Diglett's and likely assorted Dugtrio called out their names. It was clear now, they saw Takuya and his Pokemon as invaders in their territory.

"Oh...firestone...fuck."

* * *

The light of the sun was just beginning to leave the sights of ground, the lowest section of it touching the distant west horizon. A flock of Pidgeotto made their final landing points of the day on some of the trees, several rodent Pokemon scurrying back and forth. It would be picturesque, looking almost untouched by human hands.

Just beside a beaten dirt and gravel bike trail, a similar pile of earth and stone could be seen, with a similar hole. This one looked to have been hollowed out by human tools rather then natural erosion or digging by various pokemon, evidenced by it's more perfectly round shape and smooth texture. A cloud of thin dust breezed out of the tunnel, and Eon barreled out of the tunnel, the white spots on it's fur covered in dirt mixed with slight amounts of red, likely from assorted small cuts. Takuya emerged next, leaping outwards and landing on his knees and right hand. "Jup-heave-iter! Retreat!"

The Jolteon leaped out lastly, it's once-bright yellow aura dimmed by repeated attacks and use of the Thundershock. He unleashed a final blast into the mouth of the tunnel, kicking up another cloud of dust and dirt as it slowly plumed up and out of the tunnel's enterance. All three stopped and tried to catch their breath, Takuya gripping his chest while the pain of expelling the dust from his lungs echoed through coughing. The Eevee wheezed similiarly, while the electric type gritted it's teeth as it's sides expanded and contracted as his lungs tried to re-inspire energy into the animal.

"I'm...so sorry guys..." Takuya rolled onto his side, unable to roll any farther due to his backpack's size. "I didn't think of-heave-the reaction of the pokemon inside...and the dust." He coughed roughly again. "Eon, come here."

Despite it's beaten down condition, it crawled up toward it's trainer's face. The human male put his left hand on it's back, rubbing some of the excess grime out of it's fur. "Blood. Nothing serious, but I don't want to stress it. That last earthquake technique was lucky not to have damaged you any deeper. Brought half the tunnel right atop you." He reached to one of the pokeballs on the front of his belt. "It's not worth pushing you though. Take a rest Eon." The unevolved Pokemon dissipated back into a beam of white light and returned into the ball.

The dark haired human rolled back onto all fours, pushing himself upwards. "Jupiter, how about you?" The Eevelotuion trotted up beside him, looking at the human with it's dark purple eyes. "You did a great job covering our asses. How did you avoid any severe damage?" He paused for a second, looking at the sun in the distance. "How did any of us avoid getting critical injures?"

The yellow and white furred Pokemon nuzzled into his new trainer's hand, "I'm not sure if Pewter City has a decent healing center in comparison to Viridian City." He gazed to the route in both directions. "We're heading south. It's a longer distance, but it will be worth it." With no further words, he began moving forward, soreness in his legs from fleeing from the attack of the Digletts and Dugitrio's while dirt still caked his shoes and jacket.

He took a quick glance at his watch, trying to tell what the exact time was. "If we find anything we can take advantage of more a bit more experience, we'll take it. But it's late. I want to be at least on the outskirts of civilization before sleeping." He reached over his shoulder and dug into one of the top pockets of his backpack. "This ought to hold you over and help take the edge off your soreness." The trainer tossed a berry to the Jolteon, which caught it in mid-air and virtually inhaled it.

Several other pokemon in the area. Coming like a dinner bell had been rung, a small collection Rattata jumped out of the trees, likely lured by the scent. He smiled a bit. While he didn't get any decent footage while inside of the tunnel, this was an opportunity to good to pass up! A nice little battle between Jolteon and some strays would beckon in the views. "I guess it's true." He remarked, truning on the camera and setting up a miniature tri-pod that was only about 10 centimeters tall, beginning to engage capturing some video. "You really don't catch a break on the glory roads. All because I pulled out...a..."

Contrary to what he first thought, the rodent like Pokemon all scurried past, putting a large distance between the human, the jolteon, and themselves. "Well...that was weird. Something must have spooked them." Against better judgment, Takuya walked to the bushes on the side of the path, parting and looking over them to see what might have invoked such a reaction.

The sight that greeted him was not only unexpected, but left more questions then answers.

"Pi?"

"A Pichu!?" He was taken back. "What in the world...what are you doing out of the nest!"

"PI!" The small yellow pokemon turned and began to run away from the human, tripping over it's own feet in the process and landing face-first on the ground.

"Hold up, hold up. This CAN'T be right!" While the electric type mouse rolled on the ground, the much larger Jolteon came up beside it, rubbing it's nose on the side of the small animal's face. "Pikachu and Raichu are quite common in this area, and while Pichu is their first stage of growth, here in Kanto they typically don't leave their nest unless they've been driven out or..." He fell silent for a second, stopping his pacing and starring down at the small creature as it struggled to get back on it's two feet. "...or the nest has been raided by something powerful enough to injure the mother."

"Pi?"

"This is for your protection. I can't stand to see something this young have a chance at life taken away. It's happened too often!" He reached and grabbed one of the smaller balls on his belt, tossing it at the small creature. The tiny pokemon was converted into red energy, shooting into the pokeball as it landed not far from where the small mouse had been. It gave a slight twitch, followed by the satisfying 'ping' of a successful capture.

The human bent over, picking the ball up and re-attaching it to his belt. "What on earth could have been..." He fell silent again, and him and his 'partner' electric type both looked into the thick trees of the surrounding Viridian Forest. Assorted crashes and splintering noises could be heard, and with no other warning, the foliage exploded several meters away from the new trainer.

The thick muscles of the Machamp flexed as it called into the heavens, acting like it was demanding a challenge. "Firestone...I don't have what it takes to take THAT on!"

"Heh, good job Machamp! You cleared the way and opened up some nice dough." Stepping out of the clearing behind the burly pokemon came a series of men, each wearing dark clothes with a infamous large red 'R' painted on their shirts. Slung over their shoulders were assorted bags and nets, while one of them carried a pair of cages. It wasn't the cages and nets themselves that was the problem, as much as it was what was inside of them. Countless pokemon could be seen within, many of them beaten down roughly.

"Poachers..." Takuya gritted his teeth, stepping forward and knocking the still-recording camera and tripod onto it's side. He could feel a primal blood-boil within himself. Battling and capturing was fine, and unlike a lot of other trainers, he had no issues with trading or even selling! His issue came from the rough treatment that he could see. As the leader of the three grunts pulled out his pokeball and returned the Machamp, all other thoughts except one left the teenager's mind.

"Justice...must...be done!" He rushed forward, quickly closing the gap between himself and the poachers. Despite the heavy weight on his back and the large amount of running he had put into escaping the ground-types earlier that morning, his righteous rage drove him to a violent reaction. One of the Rocket grunts took a look to the side as he heard the running steps, just too late as Takuya grabbed the man's head with both of his hands, cupping his hands as he forced large amounts of air into the person's ears, grabbing him in an instant. Before he could react any farther, the teenager brought his knee right up into the man's face, the sound of cartridge splintering could be heard.

The other two grunts took note of the commotion as it happened, and one of the others rushed forward, winding up a huge hay-maker punch aimed at his opponent's face.

Takuya stepped back and lowered his body, throwing a hard block upwards to deflect the incoming attack. The punch was stopped, and before the grunt knew what was going on, Takuya twisted his entire body around, throwing his right leg off the ground in a sweeping motion. The top of his foot impacted the grunt in his lower left side, knocking the wind out of him as he fell to the ground.

The aggressive teen turned around to locate the final poacher, only to hear a loud 'pang' and feel a deep pain in the right side of his head. The blue-eyed male stumbled back, falling onto his butt as the sunset-lit world quickly began spinning into a black void. In mere seconds, he felt and saw nothing more.


	3. Repairs and Revelations

No, just because the first two words in the story is 'warm and wet', this is not a lemon chapter. Zip your pants back up, perverts. That stuff will come much later.

* * *

Warm. Wet.

Takuya's eyes slowly opened, peering into the red-tinted darkness. "It's to early..." Not even bothering to finish his thoughts, Takuya raised an arm up and rubbed his eyes. They were covered with a warm, wet, and sticky substance. "Wha?" He held his hand away from him, looking at the blood that was likely across his face and now his hand.

"Jolt! Jolt!" Jupiter was just outside of Takuya's field of vision, and he could feel the barbed tongue rubbing against the thickest splotches of half-dried blood on his head.

Takuya started to turn his head in order to face the familiar sound. "Jolteon? Jupiter!" He rolled his head back to it's original spot of lying on it's right side, too painful to move. "What happened. Jupiter, is Eon?"

He didn't even bother waiting for an answer. Functions of his mind started coming back, and he could recall what happened. The cave chase, the Rattatas fleeing, then the quick battle with Team Rocket. One of them must have hit him hard in the left side of the temple with something very solid, and enough to rupture the skin, several bloodvessels, and disorganize his mind into a state of black-out. "Need to get to...that city." The exact name of the southern city left his mind, as it was still running slow and not functioning at it's prime. "It's like someone rebooted a -ah!-A computer..."

Takuya leaned forward, fighting the pain in his head and the spinning world in order to position himself on his knees. The quarter moon and stars above lit the path substantially enough for him to tell that he was, indeed, still on the same path. And the weight in his backpack didn't feel like it had changed any, so it was unlikely that the poachers had bothered raiding his pack. "Which is weird considering that they likely should have killed me...and Jupiter..."

Despite the immense pain, he looked to the side and saw that even the camera, which he had neglected in his rage, was still on and left behind. It was unlikely that it would be still recording, the memory card could only hold about 42 minutes worth of High-Quality footage. Holding one arm out in the air in-front of him for balance and a sense of placement in the spinning world, he hesitantly ascended back into a standing position. The loud throbbing in his head became extremely loud, almost enough to drown out Jupiter's concerned barks.

"I'll be there, I'll be there." He gingerly walked, every step echoing through the bones of his body and into his sensitive head as a large pounding throb. "Why...did they...leave us alone?" He bent over, turning off the camera and slowly put it back inside of his backpack. While doing so, he lost his balance, and stumbled to his right. As he did, the fresh scab busted and another slow trickle of blood spilled back over his left eye. "That handkerchief, I need that bloody handkerchief..." He sat back down, over his folded legs, the force knocking his train of thought off for a while.

Jupiter jumped right up beside Takuya, unable to do anything but hoping his presence would at least take some of the strain off his trainer. The teenager gingerly pulled the bag off, setting it beside him and digging through it in order to find the red, black, and yellow cloth. After a few minutes of digging, he did pull out the material he was looking for. Wrapping it around his forehead and covering the wound, he re-attempted to put the pack back on and head southwards, toward Viridian City.

* * *

One can easily imagine the unexpectedness of seeing a trainer walk in with a pokemon and having BOTH of them in less-then-positive condition. Nurse Joy of Viridian City had not been expecting a case of both, usually the trainers would come in with beaten down Pokemon or the trainers themselves would come back from what would be an accident on the trails or at home.

Needless to say, seeing a human male stumbling in, dizzy and pale white with a blood-soaked cloth tied across his face, and a limping Jolteon, she was less then thrilled. "What in the world!?"

"Make sure he's okay. Just do it. He's a lot slower then normal, I think he's taken a hard hit to his left rear leg."

She stammered for a second, her job demanding her to take care of the animal while the side with human compassion ached to help the young man. "R-r-right away sir!" She ran over to the Jolteon, still lightly coated with a layer of dirt. It had indeed taken a nasty shot to the left rear hip, forcing him to walk with that leg jutted out at a strange angle while putting considerably less weight on it then normal. Thankfully, the damage wouldn't be permanent, the blow that had been dealt must have been glancing and could literally be popped back into place easier then anything else. Working her hands carefully around the creature's upper leg and hindquarters, she firmly grasped the correct points.

"Jolttttt."

"Relax. This is going to be a lot better in a second." A sudden twist of the hands later, followed by a low snapping noise, and suddenly the Eeveloution jumped forwards, landing correctly on all fours like nothing was wrong.

"Now about you..."

"Can't. Have to get Eon and that small Pikachu healed...then get back to...something..."

"You're in no position to go anywhere!" Briskly she approached him as he slipped, or more likely stumbled, backwards into a chair. "I don't know about your other pokemon, but your going into shock, and if the wound location is any indication, you might have a pretty severe concussion! Maybe even Brain Damage!"

"Justice must be...against...poachers." His head slumped forward, eyes glazed over and slowly closing.

"Shut up and focus on keeping your eyes open!" She remarked, untying the cloth. "Eyes...OPEN!" She lightly slapped him on the side of his face opposite of the wound.

"What?"

"Tell me something about yourself. I normally don't work on people I'm not familiar with."

"My name is Takuya Serizawa. I'm a member of the Pokemon Fan Club in Vermillion City, but..." His gazed started to drop off again, looking over her shoulder blindly.

"But what?" She asked, snapping her fingers in front of his face to re-focus his attention.

"I wanted to do more then just discuss and mess with trading cards. I had theories I wanted to prove, and teams I wanted to build. I've been around Pokemon my entire life."

Still paying half-attention, she opened up a compartment on a end table beside her, grabbing a needle, scissors, and some thin medical threads. "How so?"

"My parents both survived the war from a few years back, guess I was one of the lucky ones who got to keep both parents. Both ended up becoming doctors in the Vermillion area, although my Father specialized in Pokemon while my mother stayed strictly human-based only operations. When that happens, you get a consistent influx and outgo of people and pokemon."

For a moment she took the scissors out of her mouth, quickly cutting the thread after dealing with her work. "What else?"

"I do Korean Self Defense, Chung Doe Kwan, as a past-time and for fitness. I also run an internet vlog, and was setting out on the road to record battles, document the trainer lifestyle, interact with various pokemon, and field a team that could rival the best gym leaders. That was my plan. IN every major city I go to, earn some money from advertising on my vlogs and doing some battles."

"What about your parents? Tell me something about them." He seemed to be regaining some color and wasn't quite as delirious, but she really didn't want to take a chance.

"My father served in the war, and my mother came from across the ocean as a foreign nurse. She was stranded in one of the earlier failed occupation landings in the Sevii Islands, and...why am I telling you this?"

"I need to keep your mind focused on something and working. Your starting to come out of shock now, but let's not take it for granted."

"Fine. She was stranded on the coastline after a failed landing attempt. She felt sorry for the surviving men that had been left behind, and of those who didn't commit honorable seppu-seppu-suicide, did the best she could to nurse them back. She met her husband, my father, then. Even though the war lasted about over 4 more years, they hit it off real soon and had a kid. Me."

"Okay. How did you get this?" She asked, applying a thick bandage over the swen-up wound.

"Poachers. Likely offshoots of the old Team Rocket. They had that big R and everything."

"They attacked you?"

"No. I attacked them." He looked at her as she stopped and looked back blankly. "Wouldn't you attack them if they were abusing animals like that?"

"Uh...yes...I suppose." She bit her lip and turned around. "I've cleaned up the excess of blood around the wound and was able to sow up the cut. Still, I recommend you don't go anywhere for another two or three days at least. Try staying off your feet for at least a day and a half."

"Jupiter." Takuya called for his Electric Type, and he jumped up on the chair next to him.

"I notice your...starter, has already evolved. AND was an Eevee. I don't see it very often."

"A starter? I guess you could say that." He chuckled, leaning his head against the wall while his right hand ran through the matted spiky fur. "Really, he was a habitual trouble maker. He had some parasite problems as an Eevee, but the situation was controllable with some medications. However, when he came in contact with some of our spare Thunderstones, the parasite swelled and mutated. It took several months of hard-core detoxing to kill it and drain it out, followed by another half year of rehabilitation to get him back on his feet. I would have left on my own adventure without him at the age of 13 or so, had it not been for that incident." He smirked. "Jupiter took a liking to me. But all that time in detox and rehab virtually reverted him to a power level of 0, and at one point, he couldn't even stand. It's taken time to get him back to where he is now."

The teenager reached onto his belt, and tossed a pair of pokeballs to the nurse. "Take care of these two also. Eon should be fine, but I have no idea what condition the Pichu is in."

"A what?" She asked, holding the balls as she looked back at him. "How did you catch a Pi-"

"Remember those poachers I told you about? More then likely they kidnapped or killed it's mother. I saw the poor thing disoriented like noone's buisness, and captured it. Life deserves a chance."

"You have another Eevee?" She asked, reading the results of the healing machine as it repaired his pokemon.

"Eon? She's an interesting case. She was sick for several weeks, although we never were able to figure out what from. Likely an hyper-allergic reaction to a poison-type attack, but the results were to inconsistent for us to get a definite diagnosis. She overcame it just fine on her own also. However, we're not exactly licensed to hand out pokemon to up and coming trainers."

"Huh?"

"I'm sure your familiar. In the medical profession, usually there are various 'assistant' Pokemon such as Chancey, and other pokemon used for recreational ownerships, pets."

"Oh yeah. To give those to other trainers, friends, neighbors, or release them into the wild require a paperwork submission to Sliph Company's third tier management divisions."

"Exactly. But since my family's personal business is small-time, and aids humans and pokemon, it was easier to slip crap through the paperwork letting me take ownership of Jupiter and Eon without raising confusion as to how our business lost two pokemon listed as 'recreational'."

"You didn't list them as 'in-recovery'?"

"Not hardly. After about 7 months, you normally get..."

"...notification that unless the situation resolves itself shortly, the Pokemon should be humanely terminated due to unlikelihood of survival." She took the two pokeballs off of the tray, handing them back to Takuya. "Your team should be all fine. Still, I recommend you stay off of your feet for at least tomorrow and the early part of Monday.

"You know where I could rent a room?"

"We have an overnight bed for patients, free of charge."

"Computer?" He started to stand up, his feet still uneasy beneath him.

"That would cost extra use, per-hour. But it's not a good idea to be operating a computer when we don't know the extent of your concussion..."

"That's my main way of making money."

She took out a pad and paper, scribbled down some numbers and username, then tore it off and handed it to him. "The computer's are monitored, so we'll know when your on and off."

"I'll pay you in the morning, and likely again Monday morning before I ship out." Before she reached her arms forward to help him along his way, he waved her off. "Don't bother. I may have a concussion, but I'm not an invalid. I won't get stronger unless I fight through this." With that, he stumbled toward a spiral staircase located off to the side of the room.

* * *

The green bar on the screen was about 80 percent full, the remaining amounts slowly pushing on. Eon was curled up beside the desk, calmly sleeping as it continued to breath in and out. Jupiter was in a similar position, but up against one of the overnight bedroom's corners. Takuya was sitting in the rolling office chair in-front of the computer screen, his left arm folded on his chest while his right hand supported his head with his first two fingers resting on the side of his chin.

"It doesn't add up." He softly whispered. "Team Rocket, they show up, they torment various pokemon, possibly even killing them. I know that Pokemon fetch a strong price on the Underground Market for animal trading, but nothing like evolution stones or rare fruits, hell, even Pokeballs, a common object that can be bought normally with minor supervision from Sliph Co, and fetch a considerable amount of Yen. Even if they were going to capture Pokemon to sell on the black-market, why would they injure those very same pokemon in the process?"

The video finished buffering, and he went over to start editing the video down.

"The other thing I don't get is...WHY Team Rocket." He rolled over to a extra window, and pulled up several assorted online news articles. "Team Rocket utterly disbanded almost 3 years ago, when Giovanni stepped down as the Gym Leader in this city and was later replaced by Blue Oak. Giovanni was found out by the Elite Four, confessed to 93 of the 110 different charges filed, and was sentenced to exile in the far west sections of this nation." A bit of scrolling, and he came across a quote.

"_I'm sick of the Mafia business. It's become stale, and frankly, I'd probably do better running a small farm out in the middle of nowhere then continuing to treat everything as business. Besides, my heart calls for exploration again."_

"Team Rocket fell apart within 3 weeks of that announcement, save for a hostage crisis in Luminoise City and a foiled hold-up at a Research Center in New Bark Town. Those two incidents occurred in the two months later on, and even then, the people were acting in personal interests, either extremists demanding change in the market or people trying to feed themselves, their pokemon, and their families."

He starred at it for a few more minutes. "I need to stop dwelling on this. It's still a crime organization, Rocket or not, and they'll be dealt with. Even if that 'Red' trainer vanished 6 months after becoming champion, it doesn't matter. It will be resolved, everyone just has to do their part." He sighed, closing out several of the windows and going back to editing the video. "But why did they leave Jupiter and I alone after knocking me out and leaving him on his own?"

Several assorted clicks and drags, and he stopped. "Wait...what?" With a few drags, he brought the recording back to when he captured the Pichu. "What is this?" The video-camera was obviously laying on it's side, after likely being kicked over by the owner. Takuya could be seen kneeing the first guy while sweeping the legs out of the other guy. From the 'bottom edge' of the video, the third Rocket member swung a metallic pole at his face, knocking him out.

What came afterwards was the part that caught his attention. Jupiter leaped into the picture, biting the iron crowbar and pulling firmly with it. The man kicked the Electric-Type, and reached for his belt to summon a Pokemon. However, he ran out of time, and before releasing it, Jolteon unleashed a burst of electricity from his body at the criminal, electrocuting him.

The man who had been knocked down earlier came back to his feet, calling forth a Sandslash. The electric type had a plain disadvantage, yet still aggressively lashed forward, grabbing the pholidote by the neck and dragging it against the ground, shortly afterwords planting one of it's front paws on it's back, the other on it's forehead. "It's not going to...?"

Jupiter gave it a powerful tug with it's canine-like jaws, and the creature screamed in pain as a section of quills and skin was ripped out in bloody fashion. "Oh my...god."

From the recording the sound of the ground-type screaming in pain was only drowned out by the fearful man grabbing the electrocuted comrade, hooking his arms underneath the man and beginning to drag him out of there as the Jolteon continued to tear at the open wound in his opponent. Even after the man dropped his companion to drag his other friend a distance away, off of the camera's lens, the unnatural one-sided slaughter continued, mere feet away from the lens. It took the man grabbing the iron bar and repeatedly slamming it into the rear legs of the electric-type to knock him away. The person recalled the Sandslash, then turned tail and ran.

"Holy...Type disadvantage and all." Takuya glanced over to his companion. "Impressive." He saved the project up to that point. "While that's definitely going to pull in views, and you did save my life..." The dark-haired teenager bit his lip lightly. "I don't want to kill or maim the life of something only being told what to do...and I don't want to promote it either."

* * *

A bit more development of the character and the world here. Hope you still find this enjoyable despite the touchy topics such as war. War IS a very real thing for us, why would it not be in this world?


	4. Grinding for a Paycheck

After a considerably bad start, Takuya is going to actually get this adventure rolling. While this may be little more then just 'filler' in a sense, it was enjoyable to write up, and I hope this is well-received.

* * *

The doors to the Pokemon center opened up, Eon sprinting out into the early morning sun. Jupiter chased shortly afterwards, followed by a quickly sprinting Takuya waving back at those inside the center as he left it. He glanced over his shoulder at the city's downtown area, a handful of skyscrapers attempting to grace the clouds with their presences while a crowd of small-to-medium sized buildings contained the area around the taller man-made works.

"I'll be back here...probably last, but I'll be back for God's sake." The Gym Leader in Viridian was supposedly the first actual Pokemon champion, only for a day before being beaten by the still-missing current Champion Red.

Takuya ran his hand through his hair, taking care to avoid his handkerchief. He had it tied around his head, washed out and shielding the majority of a thick bandage from the elements, while also likely to keep the sweat out of his face. That aside, he looked no different.

"Hey, hey you! Yeah, you!"

Takuya turned to face a young kid, probably at the age of 9. "You look fresh, wanna battle?"

The blue-eyed teen smirked at the young boy, wearing a lime green backpack and a hat reminiscent of the Champion's. "Sure kid. I don't know what kind of change you'll have."

"Hey, I've got 4 pokemon already!" The child held up all his fingers, then reached into his pockets, likely to grab one of them.

"Very well, you outnumber me." He looked over his shoulder. "Eon! I choose you!"

The female Eevee skidded to a stop, before turning around and bounding toward the significantly older trainer. "Vee?"

"Get ready for your first official battle. But, before we do..." Takuya reached into his sack, grabbing his Go-Pro and turning it on. "How much money are you wagering on this battle? I only play for money. Not trades or keeps."

"I bet my Ratta will floor your Eevee! 500 Yen!"

"Deal. I can spare that money." Takuya held the camera up to his face, as the young boy released his Ratta onto the playing field. "Lets duel!"

"Ratta, Quick Attack!"

"Eon, Dodge and counter with Sand-Attack!"

The small ratlike pokemon darted forward, ploughing into the brown-furred pokemon's side, barring it's jaws all the while. Eevee was launched into the air, but landed on all fours and kicked up a considerable amount of dust on the path into it's opponent's face. The Ratta shook it's head several times, trying to clear it's eyes. "Eon, Follow up with a Tackle Attack!"

"Ratta, Tackle!"

The two Pokemon rushed toward each-other, but Eon had a slightly quicker reaction time and hit the opponent in the head, knocking it backwards with several flips.

"Get up close and Follow with a Tail Whip!"

"Ratta, avoid that and Hyper-Fang him."

Eon's ran up and attempted to whip the rodent, but Ratta would have none of it and quickly bit into the furry white tip of the female's tail. A loud scream in pain, and Eon ran several paces before rolling rapidly on the ground, trying to knock the offender off. It eventually did work, the young boy's rodent jumped off and attempted to get back into a combative stance.

"Eon, Tail Whip, and follow it up with another Sand-Attack!"

"Ratta, Dodge and Hyper-Fang!"

Ratta rushed to the side, but Eon leapt to it's side, body turned perpendicular to the rushing opponent and struck it dead in the face with it's bushy tail. The impact stopped the Ratta almost dead in it's tracks, falling onto it's side and skidding several inches, eyes rolled in the back of it's head.

"Ratta, return!"

"That's 500 in my favor, and I'll bet 450 that Eon can take out your next Pokemon likewise!"

"Pidgey, Come out and do your thing!"

The bird-type was switched out for the purple pokemon, and in response in called out it's name, ready for the battle to begin.

"I've got this..." Takuya whispered to himself. "Eon! Sand-Attack, try to blind it!"

"Pidgey, get up high and counter that with a gust!"

Takuya's quadreped was faster at engaging the move, but by the time the dust would have reached the normal/flying type, letting it's attack land right on the Eevee. It stumbled backwards a bit, the blast wasn't terribly powerful, but considering the fact that the furred creature had already taken a beating from Ratta, the damage done definitely affected it.

"Pidgey, Quick Attack!"

"Tackle him just as he comes in Eon!"

Pidgey's descent was faster then either Takuya expected, but thankfully for him, Eon made the attack super-early, striking the flying type out of the air. While both took damage, Pidgey's head-first spiral into the ground likely was more damaging then Eon as he landed back on all fours once more.

"Ugh! Pidgey, Tackle him!"

"Eon, Sand-attack and Dodge! He won't see you!"

Eon began kicking up as much dirt and debris as he could, rolling to the side just afterwards. Unfortunately for him, Pidgey flew right through the sandstorm, and before she could dodge the attack, it hit her square in the face, knocking her a considerable distance backwards. She landed paws up, completely dazed and unable to fight back.

"Yeah! You got 'em Pidgey!"

"Her."

The child raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Eon's a female, regardless of how rarely you see female Eevee's in the wild. With that, you get 450 yen back. But I'll amp it up. 750 that my next Pokemon will take out both of your remaining ones!"

"Ha! No way that's happening!"

Takuya crossed his left hand's fingers, hoping to whatever god above that he could take advantage of his next pokemon with just a basic Thundershock and Charm. "Pichu, come out to battle!" His right hand tossed the ball into the air, spilling it's respective Pokemon onto the ground.

Pichu looked around in concern, unfamiliar with the setting. "Pichu, I don't know if you can understand me, but there is an opponent over there, and I need you to use Thundershock attack, quickly!"

"Oh wow! It's so tiny!"

Pidgey looked over it's shoulder at it's trainer, unsure about what to do as it's trainer's hesitation to react with a command left it stunned. Because of that, it didn't see the bolt of Thunder coming and striking it right in the chest, knocking it onto it's back and terminating it's round in the match.

"What!?"

"Your young, and your eagerness is stunted by your lack of knowledge. Eon already whittled Pidgey's health down a bit, and Flying types are super weak against Electric Attacks!"

The younger kid clenched his fist, then reached in and grabbed his next pokeball. "Taubsi, I choose you!" Another Pidgey came flying out, this one just a tick smaller then the other one.

The blue-eyed teen raised his own eyebrow for a second, then shrugged it off. "Pichu, use charm!"

The small mouse-type pokemon lowered the corners of it's mouth, water gathering in it's eyes. It's hands clapsed together infront of it's chest, and the creature fell to it's knees. Ready to break into tears.

"Taubsi, Don't Look!" The boy's second bird-type pokemon didn't respond. "PIDGEY! IT'S A TRAP!" Despite it's owners' shouts, Taubsi didn't react at all except to stare back.

"Pichu, drop the act and Thundershock him!"

Obediently, the small electric-type responded with a series of sparks arcing across it's back and face, culminating in a bolt of electricity that flew across the expanse and struck the hypmotized Pidgey square in the chest.

"Taubsi! No!"

"HA! It's Super-Effective! Especially against Living Things! Now take a look at this! Pichu, Tail Whip her!"

While Pichu was a considerably slower runner in comparison to Eevee or Ratta, the other Pidgey wasn't going anywhere, trying to recover from the attack AND still bewildered by the sudden change in tactics the enemy had made. This game the tiny mouse pokemon enough time to run up, and whip him hard across the head, knocking the bird-type onto it's back again.

"Spam it Pichu!" In a lower voice, he whispered to himself. "I don't want to spam the Thundershock. He'll flat out run out of energy and possibly damage himself. But I don't have many other options."

Pichu continued mindlessly slapping the sense out of the Pidgey, and in a short amount of time, the younger trainer recalled their pokemon in order to preserve it's safety. He mumbled to himself while putting the ball back in his pocket.

"That was too close. If your second Pidgey wasn't a female, I doubt Pichu would have had enough to overcome it. Anyways, Your next one?"

"Huh?"

"You said you had 4. I've seen three of them thus far."

The kid shuffled his feet awkwardly. "...the last one is a Magicarp. I can't use it out of water."

Takuya blinked a few times. "Very well. We'll end the match here then." He ended the recording and turned off the Go-Pro, his footage caught and what would be a good starting amount earned. "Just remember, there are type advantages and disadvantages. That will come into play heavily as your journeys continue."

"Oh, I'm not going anywhere. I'm still in school and I just like battling people! I'm going to be a manufacturer, just like my mom!"

"Ok..." Takuya wanted to cut the stalling, get the money, reheal Eon, and get set northward. "800 yen. Thank you."

The young child groaned, digging into his pocket and forking over several bills. "It was enjoyable battling with you. In truth, this was my first trainer battle." The teenager turned around, shouting out. "Jupiter! We'll be off shortly!"

* * *

"One on one?"

"I don't care what other Pokemon you have. I saw you just evolve your Spinarak, uncommon as they are here, into a Ariados." The Trainer commented back, looking at the bug-catcher as he adjusted his hat.

"What's the bet?"

"Considering that our types won't cancel each-other out, and that you've probably been on the road for a while, I'll deal...1500 yen."

"Too high! Ariados isn't comfortable with is body yet. How about 1000 yen?"

"Someone is not confident. You realize if you win, you'd get a huge bonus." The teen ran his hand through his hair. "Tell you what, 1200 yen, I won't go any lower."

"I'll take you up on that! But...For an extra 300 yen, I'll bet that my Ariados can take out your Jolteon in 5 moves."

"Very well. I'll do the opposite. I bet Jupiter can knock out your Ariados in 5 moves for 300 yen."

The bug catcher stepped back, the Ariados climbing off of his back and in-between the two combatants. "If neither of us beat the other in the first 5 moves, then it's just the 1200. Remember to pay it straight up to me, Doug!"

"Deal. Jupiter, you're up!" The Jolteon took his place in front of Takuya, pawing the ground in anticipation. The two humans and two Pokemon stared each-other down for what seemed like eternity when...

"Ariados, Poision-Sting!"

"Jupiter, Thunder-Shock!"

The two attacks launched simultaneously, and landed at the same time also. Jolteon stumbled backwards as the needle-like projectile was launched from the arachne Pokemon, while the red-themed Pokemon twitched and stumbled forward, dealing with the electric shock.

"I can't afford to let Jupiter take a poison shot like that again. If he does, he's likely to get infected and might as well be finished..." "Jupiter, rush it with a Tackle!"

"Ariados, counter with a String-Shot!"

The quadruped rushed toward it's opponent, and while he did take a face full of webbing, the amount it slowed him down was minimal as it still slammed head-and-shoulders-first into his opponent, sending his opponent back several feet.

"Ariados, Constrict him while he's still there!"

"Jupiter, Whip him!"

Jolteon's attack went out of the gate first, smacking his near foe with his rear feet before spinning back around. In kept the Ariados from countering. "Jupiter, hit him hard with a Thunder-Shock!

"Intimidate with the scary face Ariados!"

Ariados's attack went off first, even if it wasn't technically an attack at all. Rearing onto it's back legs, the front of the arachnid curved up, the head just a bit higher then the Jolteon's head. With a sinister gaze it looked down at the quadruped, opening it's jaws as wide as it could. In mid-charge, the Jolteon was distracted...and intimidated, stepping back as he did so.

"Don't let it get to you Jupiter! Do as I said and finish it off with Thunder-Shock!"

"Poison Sting him now!" The Ariados balled up, rolled forward, then struck it's opponent with it's tail, the stinger imbedded deep with it's collarbone.

"So close to the jugular...Jupiter, I keep telling you, Thunder-Shock him!"

The attack finally went off, just as powerful but considerably slower. Ariados stumbled backwards, trying to regain it's composure while's it's rival heaved, the poison certainly taking root in it's body this time and impairing it's sight and stability.

"Jupiter...Thundershock! Spam it!"

Jupiter proceeded to do just that, repeatedly charging up and striking the Ariados with it's high-intensity volts.

"Ariados, Constrict him!"

"Hold on Jupiter...You've got this, just hold on. Keep spamming!"

The arachnid pokemon wrapped itself around Jolteon's face and the front section of it's body, attempting to break it's focus and wear it down faster the poison was already doing. It became quite a mess, the quickly weakening Ariados loosing and regaining it's grip while a slowly-dimming aura around the Jolteon continued to disperse it's energy into the target.

"Hold out...Hold out..." Takuya had dropped the camera from his eye-level, although it was still pointing at the ongoing battle. His right fist clenched. "Come on! You've tackled worse interior threats then that poison!"

"Ariados, Keep it up! He's loosing it!"

Slowly, the arachnid rolled off, flattening itself onto the ground as it twitched uncontrollably. It's trainer rushed up as Takuya similarly ran up toward his own pokemon. "Jupiter, are you injured badly?" The electric-type turned it's head to look at it's trainer, only to collapse shortly afterward from the poison. He pulled out his pokeball, summoning the electric-type back inside of it to slow the poison's spread.

"Why...you've killed him!"

Takuya quickly looked over to the bug-catcher, rage in his eyes. Quickly assessing the situation, he attempted to resolve the situation as peacefully as possible. "He's not dead. Recall that arachnids curl up into a ball when they die. They're both going to look pretty messed up, but he'll recover pretty fast. I can see him breathing through his legs right now."

"Grrr."

"Take this." He tossed the bug-type trainer a berry. "It should help heal him a bit faster."

"I know what fruit does!" The man angrily grumbled, reached into his pocket, and pulled out several bills, slamming them on the ground. "Here's your fucking money. Go drink yourself to death with it."

"I'm underage. Thanks for the experience though." Takuya came up, pocketed the money, and walked out.

"That's about all for the day. Eon and Pichu have had enough experience for a day, and I don't have any poison cures." The teenager waved his fingers in the air as he walked away from his recent battle ground. "I guess it's a good sum. I pulled in 4870 Yen, but I lost 3280. I got 1590 out of today, and that's not counting the ad revenue I might get from Saturday's raw video."

He threw his arms behind his back, cracking his wrist joints as he laced his fingers together and pulled them. "Pewter City is a little less then a Kilometer away, I'll get there in no time. Restore the group, finding a suitable sleeping spot, and get some rest 'till the morning. Oh, and I need to think of a name for Pichu. I really don't condone the practice of addressing your Pokemon by their type."

The male stopped suddenly, looking side to side. "Your talking to yourself again...it might be a habit, but it's not a good one..."

* * *

FYI, Tail-Whip is a damage dealing move in this story along with a Defense-lowering move. Sure, it deals low amounts of damage, but it does deal damage none-the-less.


	5. Blown Cover

A set-up chapter, prepping some of the long-running themes in the story along with readying us for the first gym badge. Hope you all enjoy.

* * *

Eon's head rose up, having heard something suspicious. It appeared that something within the woods nearby was stirring, coming closer...

Uncurling from it's ball like-formation, it stretched out it's front legs and back, then circled around it's trainer. Takuya was still on his front, fast asleep while laying atop the sleeping bag, with just a Space-Blanket between him on one side and her 'big brother' figure on the other side, who was similarly curled up but not yet awoken.

There was some crackling within the woods again, and the Eevee walked toward it, turning it's head at an awkward angle before walking toward the noise. Just a few full human paces from the thicker portions of the forest, a set of bushes parted accompanied by human footsteps. The brown-furred creature curious looked up as the male walked into the more 'clear' section of the forest.

"Oh...Hello Little one. I guess you belong to that traveler there?" The firm, yet soothing voice called out, crouching down to get closer to eye-level with the young normal-type. "Well, you're a healthy looking one. It's probably safe to assume that..."

"Step AWAY!" The silverish-blanket was tossed upwards, as Takuya, still wearing everything except his Jacket and his belt as they fell to the wayside, sprung up. In his left hand he held an unsheathed black knife, his right empty but completely rigid. Jupiter roused himself a bit slower, but despite just being asleep, it quickly took an aggressive stance, teeth growling to intimidate.

"Easy! Easy! My name's Brock, the Gym Leader from Pewter City! I was just taking a morning walk..."

Takuya held up a finger from his free hand, rubbing his eyes briefly and refocusing. "Sorry about that mis-understanding. I thought you were one of them." Takuya crouched down, re-sheathing his knife in a sheath under his sleeping bag.

"Who?"

"Poachers. The ones that are wearing the giant 'R's on their shirts."

"Oh...Team Rocket was disbanded years ago."

"I'm not sure about that." The teenager remarked, standing back up and stretching his arms. "You said you were from Pewter City?"

"Yes. My name is Brock and I'm the Gym Leader for that city."

"I see." Takuya walked over to the taller male. "Name is Takuya, Takuya Serizawa." He grasped the Gym-Leader's hand, shaking it and bending down in respect.

"What were you sleeping just outside of the city limits for?"

"Let's just say that it is cheaper and more convenient. Except for the lack of a Pillow."

"I see..."

"Your the Rock-Type Gym Leader hmmm?" Takuya smiled. "I was likely going to come and challenge you later this afternoon after a bit more training."

"I'll be looking forward to that."

"I'm sure you've already met my main team, Eon." The blue-eyed male motioned with his hands to the Eeveolution behind him. Since the situation had calmed down, it was left to merely stretching and silently yawning. "That's Jupiter. He's the more aggressive one of the two."

Brock's right eyebrow raised a bit, observing the two pokemon from a different perspective. "Like I said, I'll be looking forward to that today." He started walking off toward the main city.

"Before you leave, I have a quick policy question. What do you think of videotaping matches?"

The Rock-type specialist looked over his shoulder. "I, and most of the other Gym-Leaders don't support it. We like to keep our strategies secret. Trainers aren't challenging us to beat us, they're challenging us to prove that they can adapt to any situation, regardless of what it is or what strategy they need to face off against."

* * *

"Sit Down."

The teenager dropped his entire body-weight into the chair. "Thank god, I didn't realize how tired my feet were until I got off of them!"

"This is serious mister!" The officer glared down at the younger man. "You have any idea what you've done?"

"Slept on private property? To hell if I know what I'm here for."

The blue-haired female turned the computer monitor's screen toward the trainer. "You uploaded this, did you not?"

"Yes. Pokemon Battles have been recorded before, if you want to take me in for filming and promoting animal cruelty, that's a slippery slope." On the screen was a paused frame of Jupiter tearing into the Sandslash that had been owned by a Team Rocket grunt.

"That's not it. You've single-handedly blown our cover over this terrorist organization."

"Excuse me? Team Rocket was a organized gang...not a terrorist organization."

"Officer Jenny..." The woman finally stopped her intense speaking, facing one of her male coworkers. "What is it?"

"How would the kid have known we were keeping a lid on this? To be fair, we might have done our job a little to well."

Takuya drummed his fingers on the table. "Will someone please take care to explain this to me? That way, if this video does have to get taken down, I have a reason to explain to some..." Takuya took a look at the screen, searching for the view counter. "...20,000 people what is going on."

"The cat's out of the bag Officer. To think we were able to keep a lid on this forever was stupid. I'm amazed that the various departments kept it secret for even 5 months."

"..." She opened her mouth for a retort, but shut it afterwards.

"What were you guys trying to hide?"

"Kid, let me tell you something." The male officer pulled up a chair, sitting in it with his front leaning up against the chair's back, arms resting on it. "This information is classified. While you may have blown our cover, this could still be a salvageable situation. But we'll need you in on this."

"As long as I can continue my journey unhindered and still earn money, I won't tell...unless it brings me in a lot of dough to 'leak it..." The young man lowered his eyelids, obscuring his blue eyes as he turned his head to face Officer Jenny.

"You wouldn't dare-!"

"Officer!" The man held up his hand. "I'll give you the condensed version, but with all the important stuff still there. Team Rocket disbanded about 3 years ago. Everyone is familiar with Giovanni scandal, his isolation from the world, etc. The organization collapsed without having a strong figure head. Until now."

"What are you getting at?" The trainer leaned into to the officer just a little bit more.

"About 5 months ago, Blue Oak, the current leader of the Viridian City gym, received a suspicious package in his mail. When he opened it, it revealed a set of explosives that were rigged to go off, but due to a packaging err, the fuse was damaged and it didn't detonate. Since then, about 3 other Kanto Region Gym Leaders have received similar packages, including our own Brock here in Pewter City. I don't know about Johto, their police force works with no connection to ours. Remember about two months ago there was supposedly an accident in the Cinnabar gym caused by a young Rapidash?"

"Yeah. I guess it wasn't true, it was a bomb?"

"Indeed. Thankfully, Gym Master Blaine had been out when that occurred, as was most of his pokemon."

"Team Rocket was always just a criminal organization, operating on fear, bribery, and a small handful of good trainers. At least, the first Team Rocket did." The blue-haired woman sat down on the desk, looking up to the ceiling.

"Gym Leaders aside, more then just one or two other explosive packages have been received at people's doorsteps or in businesses. Most of them are detected by guards or Pokemon trained to attune to oddities, such as Arcanine's powerful sense of smell. We had one go off at the lab of a Professor Ivy in the Sevii Islands. All of the packages have been addressed to either gym leaders, professors, or buildings that host anything related to our Government here in Kanto, and our Economy."

"The economy is almost monopolized by Sliph Co, except for where they have made an executive choice not to intervene, such as transportation and food production for humans." Takuya muttered. "What are you getting at?"

"We think Team Rocket has been completely reformed. While a quick study did turn up that the heads of Team Rocket, the ones below Giovanni, are all missing again, a slightly more in-depth study showed something else. Apparently, 6 of the 8 of them were Free-Worlders."

Takuya took just a few moments to process the concept that Officer Jenny had just brought across. "The type of people who think that humans using Pokemon to battle for money is wrong, and that the current economic system should be banished because it is structured off that system? I'm familiar with the type. But not extremists. Are you saying...?"

"I'll put it to you this way kid. Free-World points of view are common with a lot of people, especially those in the lower sections of our 'Upper Social Class'. Usually people who run their own business or are in the middle-level echelons of larger companies such as Sliph Co. It wouldn't be hard for Team Rocket to find new recruits and sympathizers if they want to run that way."

"Just because they are suddenly planting bombs everywhere and abusing wild Pokemon doesn't mean they are now a Terrorist Organization running along a disorderly world-view, a view that's a complete 180 degree turn from their original intentions as a criminal and poaching organization."

"You'd be right, if not for this." The male officer looked over at the female one, and she reached into a drawer, and pulled out a large manilla envelope. "These letters are the ones that we got from here in Pewter City, just this city alone mind you." He opened it up and shuffled the contents onto a nearby table. The trainer looked over at the table, seeing about 8 or 10 plain envelopes. "Each one is a terrorist threat. Almost all of the larger cities have received some of these at several major places. The Police Station, the local Poke-Mart, the Pokemon Centers, the Gym-Leaders if there are any in the city, and any other profitable location. For instance, our Natural Earth and Science museum here in Pewter pulls in a lot of tourism funds, and they also received a similar threat about two weeks ago. Another example would be the Pokemon Radio Tower in Lavender Town."

"Inside of them all were direct demands that within 3 months, changes be made to that company's policy of earning and spending money, removing any relationship with pokemon or Sliph Co. Otherwise, they would be bombed, raided, etc."

The teen sighed, leaning back in his chair a bit. His eyes briefly fell on the female officer's bust, however, he forced himself to turn away from that."Trace the letters back and the situation is solved."

"We can't. The return addresses on all of these are bogus or lead to run down places. Although one that was from...what city was it?"

"Celadon..."

"Yeah, Celadon's Pokemon Center's letter led back to Johto. As you know, normally our law-enforcement offices don't really relate to each-other, and when we attempted to approach them, we were basically told to leave them alone. We can't trace any of these back to even the dumbest members."

"So what do I have to do about this?"

"Since your little online upload is the first public disclosure of the new Team Rocket, and while it is achieving viral status, most people seem to either think this is a hoax, set up, or more commonly, former Team Rocket Grunts longing for the old days where they intimidated naturally. YOU should know this."

"Hey, I spent the last several nights recovering from a concussion after my little excursion..." Takuya pointed to the left side of his head where the makeshift Handkerchief-turned-Bandanna still covered the majority of a large pad. "And sleeping in the woods. I don't check the internet daily. The fact that one of my videos is going viral is great, my sponsors will love that. But again, what do you need?"

"Try to avoid any more Team-Rocket related stuff. I know it will pull in the views, but then people will start asking questions. While our market is much more stable then the ones in, for instance, Kalos or Unova, it's still fragile. With a returning powerful terrorist group, having the same name as the one that drove us crazy three years ago, making threats again, fewer business transaction will be made, fewer people would battle pokemon thus meaning fewer bets. Prices go up before long, only the extreme rich and those with special access like Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, and some Professors will have such access. It wouldn't take long for civil unrest to take over, and by that point, this New Team Rocket would have already won."

"Okay, I get it. Don't rock the boat, otherwise the world as we know it is in jeopardy." The male sighed, standing up slowly. "I have an afternoon appointment. You guys were lucky to catch me before I got to the gym." He started to walk out, but just before the door, he stopped and turned around.

"I'm not going to guarantee complete silence. If someone approaches me and flat out asks me what I know, I'm not going to just lie to them. That said, if I plan to make money in more ways then just Pokemon battles and handyman jobs, and if I plan for that money to be worth anything, the economy needs to stay steady. As it is though, I believe this information should come out very slowly, not held back utterly."

The two officers exchanged glances. "Mr Serizawa, the Kanto Police divisions, including the Pewter division, does not base itself around the ideas of a new-found trainer less then 20 years old."

"I know, I know." The teen turned back around, heading back outside as the sliding glass doors closed automatically behind him. "Just let it be known, it will still be MY generation that inherits this world after yours, let us start testing our wings somewhere beyond just the normal battle court."


	6. Rock Hard Showdown

And now, I've teased you long enough. It's taken 6 chapters, but here it is, the first Gym battle!

* * *

"Sorry to keep you waiting. I had some business downtown."

"I understand. But I knew that your trainer's honor and determination would get you through here."

Takuya chuckled, adjusting his jacket and curling the collar up, blocking out the edges of his peripheral vision. He would need absolute focus on this, especially considering his type disadvantage. "I don't know if it's determination as much as it was sheer stupidity. I realized shortly after meeting you this morning what my largest mistake, and benefit was."

"Oh really? What's that?"

"I let you seem my two primaries and let your more experienced eyes study my main two. You already have a good idea on what to expect and how I'm going to combat whatever Rock-type Pokemon you throw at me."

The brown-headed gym leader grabbed a pair of Pokeballs off of a stand. "You haven't had any prior badges, have you?"

"Just because I was raised in Vermillion, doesn't mean I started my journey there. I took a tunnel to Viridian in order to start the 'glory road' the right way, with the type that would contrast very heavily with my own primary."

Brock lowered his eyebrows, putting on his 'game' face. "Let's do this."

"Yes. Let's..."

"Geodude, I choose YOU!" The Gym-Leader tossed his first pokemon into the ring, ready to begin the match.

"Rock and Ground type...ok." Takuya reached around his belt. After training with his trio throughout the morning and doing a bit of sight-seeing after lunch, he had put his team all into their balls when conversing with the police and hadn't bothered releasing them since. Until now. "Pichu, I choose you!"

Out of the red and white sphere came a burst of white energy that formed into the tiny electric mouse. It looked back and forth in confusion. "Pichu, remember what we went over. That thing there is the enemy! Take it out, NOW!"

"Geodude, use tackle!"

"Pichu, get to the side and whip him!"

The dual armed rock-based creature flew toward the much smaller mouse pokemon, fists clenched and ready to tackle. The yellow and black electric type barely had enough time to jump to it's left, whipping it's tail out and holding it as steady as possible as the Rock-Type flew by.

"It's not very effective..." Whispered one of the onlookers, assitants to Brock, likely for Gym upkeep.

"No duh." The teenager remarked, looking at the pair of onlookers. "Normal attacks barely even do half of the damage they normally do against Rock types, but I'm not left with much choice now, am I?"

"Geodude, harden up!"

"Pichu, you have almost no other choice. Spam the Tail-Whip!"

The solid pokemon returned to it's side of the ring, thrusting it's arms into the air and trying to focus on concentrating it's body-mass. IT didn't have much time to do so though, Pichu came flying through the air and whacked the already-difficult-to-damage pokemon with another Tail-Whip, draining him a little more and breaking his concentration.

Brock furrowed his brow. He made one very bad mistake. Geodude, as with most of his other rock-willed pokemon, were very unchanging in their ways. If he gave them an order, they would complete it before doing anything else! Even if he demanded that Geodude pull back and give a nice solid punch to the target right infront of him, it would do no good. He was unsure if that was his opponent's plan or not, but the fact that he so easily set himself up for it, especially considering that the Pichu's trainer had seemingly no issue with mindless, yet effective, spamming.

Takuya smiled a little darkly inside. He wasn't sure WHY Brock wasn't trying to do anything to end the steady beating his opponent was taking. But it opened the door. Pichu's lone effective attack that he had a chance to learn, a basic Tail-Whip, was proving to be like a drop of water on a rock. Pun not intended. Geodude was taking the damage, and while holding his own for a long time, the frustration on Brock's face told the truth. Geodude was near to being knocked out of the match. At least the first half would be decently easy.

"Geodude, you need to stop and..." The Gym-Leader's voice fell off as his first pokemon dropped to the floor, unable to do anymore after several minutes of drawn out condensing and getting hit. "...return." Brock held up his pokeball, bringing the dual type back to safety. "Impressive job. And with a Pichu no less, I'm amazed."

"You helped me yourself, not having your pokemon doing anything different then a half-ass defense raiser the whole time!"

"Well, with that in mind, the next one won't be so easy. I choose you, Onix!"

Upon seeing the overwhelming size of the next creature, Pichu leapt a few centimeters off the ground before breaking into a run behind it's trainer, grabbing it's pant-leg and looking around him in fear. "Pi! Pi Pi pi! CHU!"

"Just use the same strategy. As pathetic as it may seem, tail whipping him will probably help set us up for advancing better then anything else right now!"

The small electric-type looked up at it's trainer. It understood the concept of what he was saying, but for god's sake fear had almost utterly taken over the small creature. Takuya crouched down, facing his wild-catch. "Look, I don't expect you to win or loose every single match your in. Far from it. I know at this size and stage you feel almost incompetent. However, it's better to put up a fight, then get the stuff knocked out of you, rather than running and never fighting again." The dark-haired teenager stood back up, starring his rival and the rival's pokemon down. "Pichu, if your on my team, you need to learn something right now. One of my goals isn't only to become a master of Pokemon, but also to be the best danm strategist this side of Kanto and Johto. And to do that, I need all of my pokemon, however large or small, to put their all into it, ready to put their life on the line." Takuya nudged the small creature with his foot. "I don't know how much you understand of what I'm saying, but one way or another, you will face the insurmountable odds. Go and Whip that bitchovarock!

Despite it's trainer's brave words, the electric type slowly approached the field, looking up at the large being again. "WHIP IT NOW PICHU!" There was no response as the larger creature continued to look down.

"Onix, hit him with a Tackle Attack!"

"PICHU, DOOOODGE!"

Between the sound of the rock-type's body rushing downward and the screams of his trainer, the small mouse-type froze in absolute fear once more, the large creature barreling down and crashing right beside him. The impact sent the small fighter flying backwards, impacting the ground with it's belly and face.

"Pichu..." In frustration, Takuya gritted his teeth roughly. Why was he not responding?

"Follow it up and Constrict it!"

"Whip him!"

Attempting to avoid, the yellow and black pokemon ran several feet away, attempting to avoid the situation that was turning dark for him. Unable to escape the motions of the snake-like pokemon, Pichu was quickly wrapped up, as the larger pokemon slowly constricted him together.

"...Grrr...Pichu, return!' Holding up his pokeball, a beam of white light connected to the trapped electric-type as it squealed in pain and fear. In a few mere seconds, it was switched out for the other unevolved pokemon. "Eon! Sand-Attack! Blind him before he gets at you!"

"Onix, Tomb him up!"

Eon ran toward the much larger opponet, confidently avoiding most of the strikes done by Onix as he tried to take her out. Almost without warning, Eon turned and skidded to a stop, trying to push a cloud of dust up into the larger pokemon's face. However, coming to a stop left her an open target, and Onix collapsed his body right atop of the brown-and-white furred quadreped.

"Good job Eon! Now, show him what we practiced earlier! Quick attack him!"

Eon leaped out of the mass of snake-like rocks, jumping up and focusing as much energy as he could into running and tackling his body. The situation took an interesting turn as the larger rock-like Pokemon rose into the air, yet was STILL assaulted.

"Eon! Turn the tide and bit down on the horn on his head!"

Onix's eyes went wide, the first major facial change during the entire battle, as the considerably smaller creature clamped down. The critical strike was a major issue for Brock's Onix. He swung his body back and forth to shake off his opponent, but it got nowhere.

"Onix! Harden yourself against it!"

Onix crashed his head against the ground, leaving a small crater with Eon laying in it, leaving her temporarily stunned by the sudden change in the situation. The much larger rock-type Pokemon curled up, focusing on it's density to try and block anything else out.

"Eon, follow up with a Tail-Whip! Usurp your control of the situation!"

Eon ran up, whipping the curled up Pokemon with it's bushy tail multiple times, hammering away at it. Onix continued to stay curled up, lessening the damage, and while the attack already would leave low amounts of damage, it was starting to build-up.

"Onix, Bind her up!"

"Eon, avoid and tackle!"

This fell through, the Eevee was caught by the much-larger creature took advantage of the close-combat situation. She tried to ram her head into the crushing folds of the rock-type, but it was ineffective.

"She's tuckering out faster then I expected...I expected too much of the Pichu, and she's having trouble compensating...Eon! Bite down to try and break the grip!" The smaller pokemon did just that, but her bite was not on any sort of sensitive spot, and with Onix's hardened defenses, it's effectiveness was greatly lessened.

"Onix, keep her bound up!"

"Eon..." The trainer's teeth roughly ground his teeth. "It's inescapable...Eon! Return! Don't injure yourself!"

Down to his last pokemon, Takuya's brow furrowed. While he did expect Eon to not be the finishing pokemon, she was supposed to be able to lower the opponent's final pokemon enough for his main electric-type to clean up the situation.

"Jupiter, you need to avoid the biding move at all costs. Hit him with a Quick-Attack!"

The yellow furred challenger rushed toward the massive Onix. Just as Brock called out with a called for a Rock-Entombing, Jupiter crashed his body into the solidly made pokemon and proceeded to follow up with multiple other strikes with his feet, shoulders, and head. Onix was somewhat expectant, and curled his body in slightly abnormal contortions to shake off the opponent while keeping his more sensitive spots covered.

"Onix, tackle him!"

"Jupiter, Double-Kick him in the face!"

Just before the impact of the tackle, Jolteon turned to his front legs and kicked his back legs out as hard as he could, impacting the Onix the face and eyes. It roared in anger, but it's momentum still pushed him forward, nearly pinning the electric-type as he slammed into the small pokemon's side.

"Onix, don't let him escape! Bind him!"

"Jupiter, Dodge and Quick Attack!"

The massive rock-type bent it's body around the opponent, closing in quickly like a deadly noose. Jupiter launched his body out of it at the last possible second, the sound of rock slamming against itself resounding in the wake. The quadruped did a quick turn in mid-air, landing close to the creature's massive body, and begin to assault him with repeated tackles and slashes.

Onix suddenly bellowed, in a considerable amount of pain, and the electric-type leaped back. Just as quickly as it had moved to attack and defend before, it collapsed, onto the ground. Jupiter growled, expecting at least one more attack. "He must of hit him in a critical location..." One of the younger assistants remarked from the sidelines.

"Onix...return!" The sturdy voice of Brock didn't waiver despite the loss, and he quickly and efficiently recalled his second challenger.

"Oh my god...oh...did I do it?" Takuya fell down to his knees. "...We got it...WE GOT IT!" His eyes locked onto Jupiter, who calmed into a more casual look after his KO'ed opponent was withdrawn. "Jupiter, we f*cking made it!" The Electric-Type bounced forward into it's trainer's arms, pushing right up against him and repeatedly licking him on the face, the joy of hard-won victory mutual between the two of them.

"I Underestimated you..."

"Huh?"

"I took you for granted. After seeing your team consisted two-thirds of electric types, and the other an unevolved Eevee, I felt that the victory was assured." He exhaled, scratching the back of his neck. "Anyways, as proof of your victory, I must present you with...the Boulder Badge!" The gym-leader reached into one of his pant's pocket and tossed the badge a large distance, landing just short of the trainer.

"For me? Thanks..." The teenager leaned forward, picking up the octagonal silver ornament. He folded the left inside of his jacket outward, pinning the token up against him.

"You earned it. But let it be known that this is probably the easiest part of your quest. The more badges you acquire, the more powerful and more pokemon other gym-leaders will use against you. It's easy to get discouraged on the road of a trainer. You have no idea how many people beat the first two or three gyms only to become bored or discouraged."

"Heh. I doubt it. Even if I wanted to quit, this is how I make most of my money anyways."

The two of them headed toward the sliding glass doors of the gym. Night was thick in the air as the stars poked through holes between the clouds. "Brock, you don't mind if I get a picture with you, do you?"

"Huh?"

"Earlier I asked about filming matches within the arena, and you were against it for obvious reasons. With a bit of thought on my part, I came to agree with you. That said, I DO run an internet Vlog, and not very many people are going to even believe me unless I get proof other then just the badge."

The older man let the corners of his lips turn up. "Why the heck not." One of his assistants took the camera provided by the trainer, and under some guidance, got a picture of Stern-Faced Brock and an almost comically overjoyed Takuya.

Several other words were traded between the four, even thought the two assistants did seem to have a preference to staying silent rather then talking aloud. But both of them eventually said their goodbyes, parting ways. As Takuya turned around, Brock called out one more time.

"Huh?" The trainer looked back over his shoulder to the origin of the call.

"If you plan to get anywhere close to the Elite 4 in terms of power, you need to learn that trust is a two-way street, and that it needs to be earned."

Takuya turned back around all the way. "What do you mean?"

"Your Pichu wasn't willing to fight for you because you hadn't provided it enough time to be trustworthy of you. While your Eevee and Jolteon seemed to have developed a long lasting relationship with you, your third seems to be a different story. One of the best ways to prove yourself is to effectively capture the pokemon without significant harm, which proves to them that, as a trainer, you can understand and respect their limits, and want to push them beyond that. Plainly, Pichu didn't come by such a normal means."

"I rescue him from-"

"I don't really care to know. Emotion is the other thing, especially if your capturing a young pokemon. Not having emotion for them, rather it be joy, success, displeasure, or even some sort of frustration makes them relate to you. Most of us trainers are under the belief that pokemon do have emotions similar to us. Using a similar range helps to build a closer bond between you."

"But I do show emotion..."

"Anger is poison to such a fragile relationship when they are young and not doing anything wrong from their eyes. You sent it back onto the field, uncaring of it's fear. That may of led it to think that you don't understand it, and that would make it feel even more isolated and fearful of the situation. They have some capacity for human speech, take advantage of it. Communication is the most important bond of friendship. A young pokemon like a Pichu shouldn't be hard to befriend if you keep that in mind."

Takuya bit his lip. He grabbed the pokeball that had Pichu within it, and looked down at it. "Expression..."

"Anyways, I hope you have a successful journey. You are one of the most exciting battlers I've had for a while now, for your skill level at least!" The rock-type representative turned back toward the gym, stretching his arms and popping joints.

"Thanks." The teen murmured, and faced Brock's back as he retreated. "Thanks for everything! The battle, the badge, and the advice!"

* * *

Mid-morning sun rays illuminated the road. Route #3 northern section was a paved a bit better then Route #2 had been, making the walk a bit less of a pain on Takuya's feet...but only a bit less.

"I can't take this anymore." The teeanger dropped to his feet, ripping off his two shoes. "Once I get to Cerulean City, I'm going to rent a hotel room, flop down on the bed, and not walk for an entire day." Setting his shoes to the side, he gingerly rubbed the soles and balls of his feet.

After a few minutes, he let go, leaning back and sighing in temporary relief. He held up the second poke-ball to the left of his belt's buckle."This is as good of a time as ever. Pichu! Come forth!" The small mouse-type appeared on the road within a second, looking around at the sun-lit scenery.

"Pichu...I must confess. I expected to much from you. Like an idiot, I assumed that you would blindly follow me." He stared the small-mouse type right in the eye. "I'm sorry about last-night's debacle. I tried pushing you around, and when you were scared, I pushed you away with anger when you need my help..."

"Pi..."

"However, Just because of that, I'm not letting you go!" Awkwardly, and still without his shoes on, Takuya boldly stood up, pointing right to the small fighter. "In fact, I'm going to craft you into an electric-type god just like Jupiter! You WILL become a force to be reckoned with!" He smiled boldly. "I have no doubt in your physical abilities, or your mental ones. Continue with me on this journey, and we will conquer Kanto...and the inferiors in Johto. What do you say, Perkūnas?"

The pichu raised his 'eyebrow' in confusion at the random, unfamiliar term. It's head cocked, and it let out a low 'Pi?'

"I said you were going to be named after a god like Jupiter is. You have any idea how long it took to find a suitable name? Besides, if your with me, I will mold you into something BEYOND a mere mortal creature! So, I ask again. What say you, Perkūnas?"

With this, it sprung off the ground, leaping onto the trainer's arm and hanging on in glee. To support the weight, Takuya brought the electric-type up to his chest, setting both arms beneath it as it nuzzled itself. "I may not be your mother, but I'll go beyond that call of duty."

A high-piercing noise broke the otherwise tranquil scene. Takuya winced just a bit as it filled up the air, sounding louder then anything else until it switched from the high whine to a stunning symphony of sounds that weren't quite identifiable. But the origin WAS identifiable. The electric type within the trainer's arms swelled in energy, it's body becoming coated in a bright white light. In seconds the light was almost to bright to look at, and the teen turned his head so the sight wouldn't blind him. The weight swelled in his arms a little, and the sagged downward somewhat, not expecting the increase.

The series of noises began to die down alongside the light, and he quickly turned his head to see what had transpired exactly. To his genuine surprise, the Pichu was no longer within his arms. Rather, it had been replaced with a fully healthy yellow and red Pikachu.

"Pika-chu!"

"Wow... I knew that you guys evolve quickly, especially here in Kanto, you usually evolve before leaving the nest...but still...wow." Truth be told, the human male never had seen an evolution first-hand before, despite his parent's background and jobs.

"Perkūnas, this will be an interesting journey to behold indeed."

* * *

There you go, first evolution and first badge all wrapped up into one big happy chapter. I'm still trying to set up a lot of things for the later portions of this story, and developing the world around the main character isn't easy considering that he is spending a lot of his time outside of city limits and traveling lonesome for the time being.


	7. Bowels of the Mountain

Mt. Moon. This section is interesting, particularly because I needed to re-design Routes 3, 4, and Mt Moon's layout a bit to get the desired effects for this story. Alot of world-developing stuff is to be set up here.

* * *

Perkūnas' tail twitched in anticipation, looking with concern back up at the sky. What had been a bright and sunny morning had gave way to a dark overcast afternoon. Distant rumbles of thunders could be heard in the far distance, and such noises had spurred the trio on faster.

Eon was on her trainer's shoulder, front paws and upper body draped over while her tail swished back and forth. He extra weight forced him to walk with a slope in his shoulders, but still kept up easily with his newly evolved pikachu. Jupiter was currently within his pokeball, resting after earning a hard-fought victory against a Lassie and her Nidoran. However, while Takuya had originally been betting that this trip on Route 3 would be a great source of extra income, considering that trainers form Pewter and Cerulean city often gathered here to battle, she had been the only human noticed on the route.

"I don't get it. Did EVERYONE check the weather channel last night except me?"

Even the number of wild pokemon he had found was minimal, and most of the battles were quick to cover and quick to heal also. Takuya didn't capture anything, before leaving on his journey he swore that the only pokemon he would catch were those that he believed could be trained into powerful warriors or needed a better chance at life. His tactics were normally to 'beat' the pokemon within an inch of unconsciousness, then call off the attacks and repair any injuries done with whatever tools he had on hand in his backpack. Setting it off into the wild afterwards wouldn't be much of an issue.

"Vee!" The teenager took his mind off the resounding pain in his feet for a second, noticing what had gotten the female on his team suddenly excited. "A pokecenter? Away from a main city?" He smirked inside. "I need a place to get good shelter from this storm! It'll probably work well."

Temporarily ignoring his pain, he quickly hustled to the front doors of the center. He expected them to open like normal, sliding open. You can imagine his surprise as he skidded to a sudden stop, putting both hands on the glass panes. "Why the hell...?" He took a look to a paper, put on the door from the other side.

**"This pokemon Center is currently receiving no more visitors. As the region of Kanto is under a severe weather warning from Typhoon 13, it is highly recommended that any travelers either journey to Cerulean or Pewter city for refuge. We will re-open to service your needs when the worst of the typhoon has passed."**

"Well...f*ck. Even when I get to Cerulean City, I have no guarantee the Gym will be open if It's taken any major damage." He stepped back, thumbing his nose as a gust of wind blew by quickly. "But where to rest? I don't know if I can hustle it to Cerulean-"

Sirens from a small tower on the pokecenter's roof suddenly began to blow. "OUCH!" Perkūnas and Eon also reacted negatively, the pikachu grabbing it's ears while the brown furred creature laid it's ears back in distaste.

"Shit! Shit shit shit shit shit, SHIT!" The sirens wouldn't just sound for no reason. They would only go off it the situation required it, usually for a tornado warning, flood warning, or other severe weather warning. He looked around, trying to see if there was anywhere he could take shelter from what was looking to be a quickly closing storm.

A large flash of lightning in the distance lit up the sky, and his gaze fell onto the dark nearby entrance of Mt. Moon. "No..." Another flash of lightning and strong gust of wind blew through, this gust laden with the smell of a strong storm, one that he was quite accustomed to coming from Vermillion. He weighed his options, and broke down.

"Eon, Perkūnas, to the cave! NOW!" The trio broke into a fast run, just as the skies above opened up and rain began pouring down on the group. Quickly they scaled the short rocky walls to the main entrance, trying to take cover before the worse parts of the storm came after them. They made it in shortly, and just as they did they were met with the sound of a powerful lightning strike. The trio turned to look outside, seeing a greyish-brown smoke curling up in the distance against the dark green and black clouds. It was likely a fire had started from a lightning strike.

"That settles it. We're staying in here for the next two days or so."

"Vee..."

"Relax. The only lightning I'd worry about down here would be from Perkūnas...unless you suddenly evolve into a female Jolteon without a thunderstone." The human crouched down, sliding his backpack off to begin digging within it. "Flashlight...flashlight!" He pulled out a small 4 inch cylinder with a soft rubber button at the end. Imagine the surprise to his pokemon as the machine suddenly illuminated the surroundings almost like the midday sunlight.

"Let's go. If we're going to get to Cerulean in a decent amount of time, we might as well shortcut through this mountain and see if there is any suitable resting spots in here, and come out the back end onto Route 4 later."

With such a bright light illuminating the way, the group descended deeper into the caves, leaving the sounds of rain and violent thunder behind them. "At least we won't be assaulted by Digglets and Dugtrios."

They group traversed down the cave into the heart of the mountain for several hours, looking for any suitable place to stop or rest. Although the entire time Takuya had a different idea plan. He knew that there were some assorted Clefaries and Clefables within the mountain, and due to how evasive and difficult they were to catch, it would make a fine addition to his team due to it's rarity.

His concentration was broken as several rocks landed on his head. His gaze shifted upward suddenly, observing several more pebbles sprinkling onto his face like a trickle of water. Perkūnas made a noise akin to laughter. "It's not that funny."

"Clecleclecle!" Another laughter like noise could be heard up above, and on a stone cliff next to the ceiling, he could see what caused the somewhat laughable incident. A pink clefairy sat atop, pushing some stones off the ledge and onto his head, laughing all the while.

"Your gonna get it now! Perkūnas, thunder-shock it!" An electric discharge traveled up toward the small cliff, and upon impact, split that section of earth asunder. But it was for naught, the chubby pink pokemon had bounced onward, twirling on a secondary cliff.

He gritted his teeth. "After it! We can't let it escape!" Quickly, he ran off in pursuit, only broken by short climbs downward he had to make from higher plateaus onto lower ones. All the while, their target continued hurling rocks at the group, laughing the whole time.

"Get back here right..."

Without warning, the chase came to a stop, the fairy type leaping away. Eon skidded to a sudden stop, looking at her master as he fell out of her gaze. Perkūnas unleashed another thundershock at the creature, but the dust and debris that was released from the impact hid the fleeing creature, forcing him to even ditch the chase.

Takuya crashed to the ground, a slab of rock falling behind him and crumbling. He winced as his knees and arms took the brunt of the impact, all of his forward momentum destroyed by a miniature rock-slide.

"Pika-pi-"

"Knock if off Perkunas. It is probably out of range by now." While standing up, he turned to face the top of the cliff "Eon?"

"Vee?"

"You're going to have to jump down. I'm pretty sure I can't climb this new ridge." The exposed side looked to be extremely gritty, and was nearly a 80 degree ascension.

The furry brown and white creature stepped back, then leaped forward, falling onto Takuya's head and making him stumble as he accounted for her extra weight. "Vee!"

"I gotcha." He remarked, adjusting the furry creature as she changed her position, now sitting atop of his backpack with her forepaws draped on his head. "Well, I can assume we're not getting out that way. Just going to have to hope there is another way out deeper in here."

* * *

A steady drip-drip noise was the long sound within the deeper sections of the cave. It was the only thing that broke the silence, well, that and Takuya's deep slow breathing as he continued to sleep within the deeper parts of the cavern. Time had pretty much lost meaning, partially because there was no sunlight to keep track of time in the deeper darker portions, and partially because he didn't even have a watch.

He merely found a place that looked comfortable enough, recalled his pokemon, and dozed off. While under normal circumstances he would have let them out to sleep along side him, the last thing he wanted to do was loose any of them in the dark tunnels. He'd never find them there. IN fact, even he went to sleep a bit uneasily, knowing that shortly after his memory-black out, he got lost also. To ensure he wouldn't lose anything, he merely took his pack off and rested his head on it, the underground sections of the cave warm enough to warrant no need for any covers.

The steady rhythm by the natural water sound was interrupted by a much louder one. A repeated click-click-click-click noise could be heard, and as he was a light sleeper, the teenager woke up, unsure of his return to reality as everything was so densely dark. Even after rubbing his eyes several times, he needed to feel his surroundings to ensure that everything was still fine. Reaching between his legs, he grabbed his light, and prepared to turn it on when...

Voices. More then just the steady click-clack of the boots could be heard in the distances, voices has now also started echoing within the chamber. The distance from the source to him, while closing, was still plainly enough to muffle the voices that were bouncing off the chambers. Takuya stood upright, reaching behind him and awkwardly putting his pack back on him. Someone else must have come beneath ground also!

Illumination was the next thing that affected the male, as it slowly came in, illuminating the cave dead-end that he was in, and the path that it branched off of. Some of the white and blue stalactites and stalagmites shined in the yellowish light, and Takuya gripped his light carefully, not wanting to startle whoever else was down there with him in the depths of Mt. Moon.

"-them good. They'll never come back from that."

"The rain will put out and obscure the smoldering ruins. It'll take weeks just for anyone to realize what happened."

The trainer gritted his teeth, watching two adult males with large 'R's on their shirts walked by, covered in black. One was holding a lantern just in-front of his face, the other had some sort of weapon slung over his shoulder. He wasn't able to identify what type, as weaponry was unfamiliar to him. However, if Team Rocket was down here, they surely also had to leave at some point also, and with that in mind, he held back his desire to strike out against the criminals.

"But once they do find out what happened, they'll know we mean serious business, and that was just the first part of our activities unless there are some changes."

The two men gave a low laugh as they passed by Takuya. It helped that he was backed all the way up against the back wall of the alcove, and their focus was straight ahead. As they passed by, Takuya took several quick steps toward his targets, his sore feet dancing atop the uneven surface after them.

Their slow pace ensured that he wouldn't lose them, and even after awhile he had to admit that this was a strange situation. A criminal organization that was supposed to be dead, now leading to possible freedom from the rocky underground maze. That, and it felt like he was doing a Tactical Espionage mission. "It's like I'm Solid Snake..."

Several minutes passed as the trio continued to journey farther and farther down the tunnel. Eventually, the 'total cave darkness' effect that was only being neutralized by the lantern held by the Rocket grunts changed to a dull darkness, and even from then mutated into something akin to normal indoor light from a different source.

"We're back! Place is torched and everything!"

"Good job. We've got everything needed, once this storm blows over we'll ship out."

"The eye of the thing passed over us several hours ago. Another day down here, and we'll easily make it out of here with good news for the leaders."

"Great. Now we just need to wait another day or so."

Takuya turned the last corner to the fully illuminated corridor. Several lights hung from the ceiling, and the section that the criminals were all gathered was a bowl-like depression in the middle of the path. The depression was at least 6 feet deep at it's lowest point, and had to be some 25 feet wide. In the center was a group of various spaceblankets and other camping equipment. One of the men were roasting a hot-dog over what looked to be a small container of a burning...something. The material inside must have been extremely hot and durable, almost like a portable stove.

But what really caught the teen's attention was a large machine, which was sitting to the side of the basin. While it was currently turned off, the purpose of the machine was plainly a generator. It had to be enough to power up to 25 houses! It was at least 2 or 3 meters high and half a city block wide! What in the WORLD would Team Rocket need something like this for?

"Hey you! How did you get here!"

Takuya's attention snapped to the center of the basin, as the four criminals all suddenly stood up, and now he could tell it was actually three men and a woman, the pronounced bust giving that away.

"I've been trapped inside of this mountain for about a day and a half, since the storm showed up. May I ask what you criminals are doing here?"

Two of the men through their heads back in a roaring laughter. The woman merely crossed her arms. "Same, only we came here willingly."

"Probably because you knew the Pokemon Center just outside the mountain would have you arrested."

"For your information that place would have closed down under this wea-"

"HEY! That's the kid that kicked the shit out of me and my teammates!" One of the grunts stood up suddenly, pointing an accusing finger at the teen. Takuya blinked, realizing that the situation just went from bad to worse. Not only did this person identify him, but he also was the one with the weapon slung over his shoulder.

"This kid?"

"He's not all! He's got a Jolteon that tore the shit out of my partner's Sandshrew, type disadvantage and all!" The man slid the weapon's strap off his shoulder, balancing it in his hands and pointing it at the trainer. "I never let a debt go without repaying it."

"Whoa. Marcus, relax."

"We were sent here to wipe out the population of Mt Moon Square, and we did that. I'm not having a punk try to take me out again."

"Come on down little boy." The female remarked. "Maybe it's time you kissed and made up for your assault on our team member."

"Don't let him get close! He must be a karate freak or something! How else do you think Shinoda got his face all tore up!?" He aimed the weapon right at him. "This boy dies here and now."

"Actually, it's Tae Kwon Doe, from the old nation of Korea back when it wasn't a Chinese and Japanese split state. And before you kill me, wouldn't you want to get more acquainted with me?" Takuya raised his arms above his head, interlacing his fingers and cracking the joints in his arms. However, any closer observation would show that he was shaking in his feet. He didn't have the tactical advantage of surprise, they were armed with weapons and would likely also have pokemon. Even if Eon was a capable fighter on the level of Jupiter or even Perkūnas's upgraded level, they'd still be outnumbered.

"Don't listen to him! I'm gonna burn him right where he stands!"

"A barbeque?" The teen tried sounding confident, relying more on his own voice supporting him then demoralizing the men. "I've not had one for several months. Hard to beat a good BBQ from across the ocean like my mom's. But I'll gladly join you. Let me come on down!"

He jumped off the edge, slamming both of his feet onto the curved portion of the basin. Gravity began sliding him down. As he came down, the vengeful criminal pulled the trigger, and a stream of flame ejaculated from the weapon, shooting just over his head. Takuya ignored the heat as he reached onto his belt. "Jupiter, Perkūnas come out!" He held the balls out in front of him, pointing them right into the midst of the group. Just past an instant later, the two electric types stood in the center of the group, readying for a fight. "Jupiter, take out the one with the fire! Perkūnas, get the big guy!"

Reaching the bottom of the basin, Takuya rushed forward, heading straight toward the average looking male. He threw a huge sweeping roundhouse punch at the teen, but Takuya threw his arm up at a 45 degree angle, blocking it. With his other fist he plowed into the man's face, the sound of teeth slamming together crudely interrupting the criminal's train of thought. The man stumbled backwards, grabbing his jaw in pain. The trainer cupped his hands, slamming them over the ears of the male in an effort to force air into his ears and damage the canal. Quickly, he followed up by bringing his hands and the man's head down into his knee, rendering him unconscious.

Jupiter bit onto the arm of the familiar man, sinking his teeth through the black cloth. He screamed in pain, but it did nothing to alleviate the pain of the bite. Without further prodding, he discharged a large amount of electricity into his target, sending the man into spasms and collapsing onto the ground, dropping the flamethrower. Jupiter snarled, turning his attention to his fellow electric type.

Perkūnas discharged a large bolt of energy at the large man instantly. While it did slow him down a bit, it was absolutely ineffective. "Silly pikachu. Who do you think they got to turn off the generator?" He held up his hands, covered in rubber gloves, and in the same way, his feet had rubber soles and support. There was no point of conduction. IN addition, the man grabbed his shirt, and tore it off, revealing an awkward looking thick leather-and-rubber jacket beneath it. "Come at me little one. My type EAT mice like you for breakfast!" The yellow and red pokemon froze for a second, fear once again coming over it as the larger man drew closer. This time, he didn't have his trainer's legs to hide behind.

"Pika...CHU!" The electric mouse leaped upward, dragging his front claws across the man's face. He screamed was thick with startle and a bit of pain. However, the small mouse type didn't stop there. It's tail turned a shiny white, and with a quick turn around, he cut the man off at the heels. Blood was drawn as the attack cut the man's left heel. He screamed in pain, falling down to his back. Perkūnas leaped ontop of the person. His entire body was grounded now, and a simple electrocution should take care of the situation.

"No you don't! Ekans, Zubat, Rattata! Knock these guys back!" The three pokemon shot out from the balls on the man's belt, surrounding the pikachu. The mouse type let go of the man, it's attention divided by the three separate offenders.

Jupiter leapt forward, tackling the bat-like dual type and pinned him to the ground, attempting to neutralize any threat it would prove before it became to late. The Zubat cried out several supersonic waves in defense, but the Jolteon's focus was squarely on the pinned flying/poison type.

Takuya threw a punch at the woman's face, only for her to throw her arm in the way and deflect it to the side. In her other arm she opened a switchblade, attempting to stab the younger teen somewhere in the chest. As she lurched her arm forward the male threw his leg up, arcing it at it's highest point and smacking her hand with the side of his foot, knocking the knife onto the ground. Before she could begin to react, the trainer shifted his body-weight and position toward his back, pulled his leg up to his chest, and then shot a powerful sidekick right into the female's solar plexus. The sound of the wind getting knocked out of her echoed within the basin, and she collapsed backward, gasping for breath.

Perkūnas took a cautious step back as the snake-like pokemon reared up, hissing at it's opponent. He begin to store energy for another blast within his cheeks, only to get cut off as the Rattata behind him knocked the yellow and red fighter to the ground, chattering and ready to perform serious damage.

"Ekans! Wrap him up! Ratta, when that's done, rock smash him!"

The purple coils began to constrict around the much smaller electric type, and even though the pikachu repeatedly attempted to squirm out of the situation, the familiar body-encompassing situation took hold again. It's struggle for release quickly devolved into familiar cries and screams for escape.

Rattata didn't just stand by idly. While it ignored the pleas of it's bat-like partner, the normal type picked up a medium-sized stone nearby. The damage of such a move would be minimal to most pokemon if not for the fact that the Pikachu was being slowly suffocated. Such an attack could be a one-hit kill.

"Tackle him before he gets that finished!"

Rattata was knocked to the side, skidding atop his left arm for a while before shifting it's weight and landing back on all four feet. Where it had stood mere moments earlier, Eon, freshly freed from her pokeball, stood, huffing after being called to fight so quickly. The two normal-types stared each other down, anticipating the next move. Eon looked over her shoulder to see Takuya flexing his arm, glaring at the battle before him. There was only one man left, and while he was still on the ground, all three of his pokemon would be capable of killing him if he lost even one of the battles.

"Jupiter, Thundershock that Zubat! Eon, blind your enemy with a sand-attack! Perkūnas, shock him!"

The Jolteon promptly did so, grabbing the flying type by the right wing with his mouth, tossing him into the air, and lighting him up with another powerful burst of electric energy. Zubat might normally be a competent pokemon, but it's opponent outclassed him in sheer type advantage. With that, it was rendered unconscious, removing it from the 3 on 3 match.

Eon skidded just in front of the Rattata, kicking up dirt and dust into it's opponent's face. Rattata attempted to charge head-first into the cloud, but Eon had already skirted to the side by this point. The purplish pokemon skidded to a stop, looking for his seemingly missing opponent. Quickly, he was granted with a tackle from the side by the Eevee.

"Rattata, bite down on it with hyperfang!"

"Eon, Get ready to whip him with your tail!"

The brown-and-white quadruped raised her tail to prepare for a hard strike, and shifted her rear body to hit the incoming attack. The time taken to ready for the attack was enough for the Rattata to already begin rushing the opponet, intent on chewing it out. "Dodge and whip him as he goes by!"

Rattata utterly missed as Eon turned on her front legs just at the moment the command was given. The two briefly made eye-contact before the bushy tail circled around first, slamming the opponent in the right rear flank. This was enough to take the Ratta out of the battle, and he collapsed to the side.

Perkūnas didn't heed the instructions. Fear and dread, along with the crushing pressure around his ribcage, prevented him from countering or defending. "Jupiter! Thundershock him! Eon, tackle the snake! We've got to get Perkūnas out of there!"

"Ekans! Poison Sting that little twerp!"

Takuya looked up to see that the man wasn't pointing to the Pikachu, but to him. The teen's eyes widened in fear, and he stepped back as the snake-like creature darted toward him. "Shimatta..." IN an instant, Perkūnas was released in favor of the much larger human target. He raised his arms, hoping to shield any major arteries from a bite so he could preserve his life. Jupiter and Eon both tackled the creature in the side as it arced through the air, but it was ineffective at altering it's dead-set course.

The male was knocked onto his back, both hands wrapped around the neck of the purple pokemon as he tried keeping it away from his face. It's teeth were barred as it struggled within his grip, and began sliding downward, his grip nearly useless against the serpentine creature. "God...no."

"CHUUUUUU!" A burst of energy coupled with numbness coursed through his body, and he let go of the snake pokemon as it dropped to the side, briefly flopping about before a second wave of electricity from the former prisoner overwhelmed the Ekans. It was rendered unconscious shortly afterwards. Takuya was left with a strange feeling in his body, having just taken some of the excess from a Thundershock attack meant to permanently stun, if not kill. While the snake-like creature had taken the largest portion of the damage, he felt wrong, and he knew he felt wrong, as he began to move, his joins feelings distant from his body while his sight changed focus without his control. His first attempt at standing left him rolling onto his back again, not having enough motor skill control to do so.

The large man began to drag himself out of the basin, but before getting very far Jupiter leapt and stood infront of him, baring his teeth as electric sparks danced across his back. The man threw his hands up in the air, slowly walking back down.

"Perkūnas..." Takuya sat up, trying to ignore the tingling feeling and trying to see straight. He looked at...or more appropriately in-the-direction of Perkūnas. "...you saved me...". Awkwardly, he began to stand up, trying to brush dirt off of his back. "No. Don't do that again." The pikachu looked up at it's master, utterly confused. "Perkūnas, I don't want you trying to step in and save me. I need to be able to defend myself." His body slightly swaying as he stumbled forward, he met the man at the bottom of the basin. "Hands, behind you...now. Or Jupiter WILL bite down on your neck so hard that even a Crystallized Onix wouldn't be able to stay in one piece."

"Bitch. Team Rocket is going to send back-up when we don't return with news."

"Shut up and hands behind you." The teenager reached into his pockets and pulled out a knife. He held the weapon to the man's arm, and sliced off nearly the entire sleeve. After several more cuts, he began to tie the elongated piece of cloth between his arms, preventing him from doing anything more. "Jupiter, make sure he doesn't try anything funny."

* * *

"You guys have one of three options." Takuya stated while sitting on a rock he moved over to the basin's center. Eon sat proudly to his left, her head held high up in the air after the overall successful battle. Jupiter likewise sat beside him on his right, teeth barred as he stared at the man who had wielded the flamethrower earlier. He had his hands resting on both of their heads, gently stroking them. Perkūnas was sitting just to the other side of Jolteon, munching on a small piece of fruit that Takuya had stored with him.

"Option #1. I leave you guys down here, and you all stumble around the cave unless you are able to find a way out of here. If you choose to do so, I will personally confiscate all of your pokeballs and materials, leaving you with no survival tools." The three men and woman all stood on their knees, hands tied behind their backs with scowls or blank looks on their faces. "Now maybe you guys will live, maybe not. I'll shrug off responsibility of you all."

He got no noteworthy response except the cold, hard stares. "Option #2. I will have Jupiter and Perkūnas here shock you to death. Granted, the human body can take a decent amount of electrical current, but I assure you that you four won't survive an electrocution if the purpose is execution. That said, for what you have likely done in the past, just being members of Team Rocket, you deserve not much better." Takuya bit his lower lip, hoping that his third option would be the one the group would agree with. He never really KILLED anyone before, and he wanted to keep it that way. Besides, neither of his electric types ever attacked others with the intention of murder form an order he gave them, why make that an issue now?

"Option #3. I'll let three of you go, with all of your resources except for that damaged flamethrower and your pokeballs. The fourth one stays with me, and I will hand-deliver that person to Cerulean city tomorrow. I'll take the aforementioned objects with me. If you want them back, you'll have to get them back from the police. If you want to ditch them and ditch your teammate, fine, be my guest. It won't matter to me once I've turned that person in to the authorities, and I can go back on my merry way." He stood up abruptly. "Because in my eyes, you guys are all little more then a block to hinder my progress." Silently he prayed again, hoping his overplayed rough, gruff demeanor was enough to intimidate them into doing something other then choosing death, and that it would make the four of them think twice about trying to overpower their current captor.

"I'll give you four some time to discuss it amongst yourselves what you want to do." He sat back down, resting his hands on his teammates once again. The silence in the low section of the mountain's underground tunnels near completely returned, hushed whispers between the four criminals all discussing amongst themselves.

"We've made a decision."

* * *

A position for an OC submission is open. However, there is only one position as a fellow writer took the other one. This is only open to the reviewer known as 'AFeralFurry', as his reviews have actually given ideas to help progress with the later portions of the story. To contact me, you'll need to make a FF account and contact via PM. This is because last time someone submitted an OC submission via reviews, the story was taken down for violating FF guidelines.


	8. The Paths Around Cerulean

"Move it." The barrel of the flame-thrower poked into the grunt's back as he stepped out of the hole in the mountain. Takuya poked him several more times, the last one right at the base of his neck. "Don't make me kill you. Your teammates decided to turn you in, take your anger out on them."

Clouds still covered the sky, and the last of a drizzle was falling from the heavens. "We're going to get wet."

"I've been stuck underground for almost three days now. The worst of the storm has passed, I'm not going to stay out of the UV rays any longer. Now get MOVING!"

The grunt leaped off the small ledge at the entrance of the east cave. His feet landed on the side of the cliff, and he allowed gravity to slide him down. Takuya followed shortly afterwords, kicking up dust and dirt behind him all the while. "Looks like we got out here at about mid-morning, judging from the brightest point in the clouds above. If we're lucky, we can walk to Cerulean City and you won't have to sleep in the exposed element now, will you?"

Briskly, the bound man walked forward, the significantly younger teenager behind him, holding the weapon to his back.

"Little Oaf."

"You used that insult three times in the cave. And before you break into what sounds like a German or Russian dialect, I don't really give a danm when I can't understand what your saying."

"Do you feel like a man now that you've pushed us around, punk?"

The prodding question was left answer-less. "You nearly kill one of my comrades and severely injure the other one, then you leave the other three in my new group to aimlessly wonder around the interior of that mountain until they die? Some hero you are. Gotta stop the big bad Team Rocket!"

"I never claimed to be a hero. If I wanted to be a hero, the ones that are always under-loved and under-respected, I would have joined the police. Hell, maybe I would have had a gender swap so I could be the next Officer Jenny."

"You want to be like the misguided trainer Red! That's all."

The black-haired male chuckled. "Not hardly. While I do admire his goals and his effectiveness, there are several major differences and tons of assorted minor ones. For one, I don't want to just disappear for years, leaving everyone else to assume I'm dead. For two, I'm not out to catch every pokemon in existence. I'm out to build an effective team. Quality over Quantity. You don't see me running around, spending money on replacement Pokeballs to capture animals I don't really care about. If a pokemon needs a shot at life or has potential, boom. I capture it. I'll let them leave if they want afterwards."

"You sound like those Plasma Freaks across the Ocean."

"Not hardly. I'm not a terrorist. Besides, why do you think I take the most powerful pokemon or those that need a chance to live?"

Silence carried over the mountainous route for a time. The pacing of their feet on the muddy path the only thing that dully tried breaking the monotony. "The ones that need a chance is because I still respect life. The stronger ones is because I've got theories. Theories that I can only prove so far by not working in a lab. Theories on evolution and theories on bonding."

"Your one of THOSE sick freaks huh? Getting off by f*cking your 'mons?"

"I'm not here to discuss Pokephilia, and that came so far out of left field I'm not even sure how you got that from what I said. Unlike Red, who apparently had a virtually not-existent bond with most of the pokemon he owned save for his special 6, I want to see what having a small group of pokemon does to the group's mentality and mindset. How every victory and every loss affects them. Granted, I'll be heading up the rungs of the ladder and beat all the Gym battles here. I'm also likely to kick the Johto league and then go after the Elite 4 themselves."

"That's not making sense."

"We know how humans react to wins and losses in a Pokemon battle. With almost 75 percent of the economy based around Pokebattles, the reaction can go to the extremes. But on average, there is just normal dejection or satisfaction. But almost no study has been done on the minds of those doing the fighting. Why else do you think I run an internet VLOG? To not only earn money so I can travel comfortably..." Takuya kicked his feet together, the shoes plainly damaged in the soles. "But also to record all the data of during, before, and after. I'm curious as how a bond with the trainer enhances or decreases their emotional reaction. If you couldn't tell during the beat downs that was handed to you and both teams you were on, Jupiter is very loyal. His reaction to victory is elation, and to defeat is minor-to-moderate dejection. As opposed, I've not had the time to examine Perkūnas and get an accurate reading on his reactions to victory and defeat."

"A hippie scientist huh? One of those that think they are SO smart because they don't study in a lab and have no accurate methods of research. A cold, isolated soul with no sense of respect for life...AHHH!" The man clad in the black and red shirt tumbled to the ground, landing on his back, or more accurately, his wrists that were still tied up behind him. He winced in pain, only to look up and see the barrel of the flamethrower he had once wielded now pointing at his face.

"You have no room to talk about life. Come back to me on that when you are the one that feels the mind of a Kadabra with a heart defect reach out to you, then slowly pull back to death's clutches. Or when an Mightyena attempts to call for it's owner when undergoing painful surgery. When the pokemon reach out to you, and reach out to you right beside death's door or under extreme pressure, and you feel it without causing it, THEN, only THEN come back to me about that." Takuya pulled the barrel back from the man's face.

"Oh, that's really clever. You fail to realize that nearly every painful emotion that those pokemon feel are from battles, caused by this insane world we live in?"

"What's it to you?"

"What do you think the new and improved Team Rocket's goal is? We're here to break up the old system, a system that keeps everyone enslaved to a single corporation like Sliph Co and makes a never-ending spiral of pain and agony, followed by cures from that same company."

Takuya blew up into the hair, as if to blow off his comment which sounded scripted. "And by achieving terror, you think that you can save the pokemon?" The teen stepped back a bit farther, and began laughing.

"Don't mock our pledge! We-"

"Oh, oh, I know, I know! I hear extremists like you ALL the time! But you know what's funny about it? Earlier you tried to group me in with the Pokephiliacs, and acted like it was a harsh and cruel group." He chuckled a few more times. "What you say is what most of them say after converting to their cross-species relations!" He chuckled lightly. "I hold nothing against you if that is what strokes your ego and strokes your cock. They are sentient beings, and even though only Psychic, Ghost, and Dark types are the only ones recorded on carrying on conversations in a audible human language on a mental plane, ALL types of Pokemon have expressed communication on some level and many of the more intelligent ones could express consent. It's not like you could rape most Pokemon, most of which are more powerful then a average human."

"What are you getting at?"

"What I'm getting at is this. I know, and most everyone who works in the medical profession, knows that the system is broken. Your message is not new. But do just a bit of thinking for a minute here. Just a little bit." Takuya crouched down next to the man that was still laying on his back. "What are you going to do after abolishing the current system? Do you have a new system in place, ready to launch? Have you been printing or smelting new currency for us to use? Because as you know, the Yen will collapse with almost every other major currency if you succeed. Do you have controlled distribution centers? How about methods of transporting food and water in the higher-populated areas and across oceans once the riots start breaking out. People are going to want food, and they'll want to horde it. And in order to gain it all, they will resort to weapons such as the one I have in my hand, and resort to using the very creatures they have raised as weapons."

"So? Out of all chaos comes order."

"Yes, but what kind of order do you wish to establish. The type of situation you are calling for would demand immediate solving. Quickly made civil unrest would be much more jeopardizing then a slow, accumulated build up to it. In fact, if you could avoid the unrest utterly and just slowly alter the system over 40 or 50 years, I'd guarantee you that so few pokemon would be hurt and injured, it would become funny."

"I don't get it."

"I'll make it simple for your grunt-like mind to understand. Whenever an organized system, no matter how flawed, collapses, who are the first three kind of people to benefit?"

"Who?"

"Those that had invested all they had in food, water, and necessities. They become the hubs of trade if they have control of their supply and demand. The second type are the ones that get ass lucky. Now the people in those two categories are rare. Those in the first one run out of energy to defend their stockpiles, and luck is a rare and fickle thing. You know what the third type is?"

"Who?"

"Take a guess?"

"Trainers?"

"Not hardly. It would be the ones that were in power heading into the mess, especially if they were not viewed as the cause of it. Take a second and think of every major city in Kanto, Johto, Honnen, Sinnoh, and hell, maybe even the Sevii Islands. What do almost all of the cities have in common with each other?"

"Gyms and-"

"That's the one. Gyms. Which are run by Gym Leaders, always the most powerful people in that city, save for a very few number of exceptions. And they all answer directly or indirectly to the Elite Four, and to extension, the current reigning champion. They have massive amounts of power at their disposal, all of them owning small armies of Pokemon that could level entire city blocks if the right commands were uttered. THESE people would strike fear in the hearts of the masses, and they would be the ones to organize everything through fear that they would have to use, rather they wanted to or not."

"I don't get it."

"When the people lose their bread and circuses, they all go apeshit. They'll fight whoever they see just to try and take the slice of heaven they imagine that the target has. It takes a real strong show of power such as that of a Gym Leader, Elite Four Member, or Champion to snap them out of it and force them to realize that their world got rocked, and they can't do anything about it. Add that in with the fact that the local Gym Leaders, Elite Four, and the Champion are always viewed as heroes, even gods among some, and can do no wrong. The riots evaporate as everyone falls in line to the beat of their drums."

"And then they'll make the new system we dream of."

"Wrong-O. Despite the Rocket kook-aid you've been drinking, I will assure you the system, at best, will go back to what it was before. Those three groups, Gym Leaders, Elite Four members, and Champion, and former champions such as Blue Oak, aren't standing up to the current system. They see nothing wrong with it, or what they do see wrong with it is overlook-able. But the more likely scenario is that the Elite Four and/or champion will gradually roll in a new social-economic system that gives them more power. Why they would have more power is up to you to decide. Maybe it's to put them in control to prevent another collapse, maybe it's a conspiracy. It doesn't mater."

"Then what do we do?"

"Roll over."

"I'm NOT taking it in the ass from them like a b-i-tch! We've fought to hard and long-"

"No you dimwitt!" The trainer groaned. "Roll over so I can get you off the ground and we can get moving again!" The grunt complied, rolling onto his stomach as the teenager grabbed him from behind and began to help him up. "No one here knows what to do. That's a fact. I don't care if your a medical worker or a pokephiliac, which are the two main groups that see the broken system. They all see the problem, none of them see a possible solution. But moving without a plan is worse then staying the same."

The man stayed quiet as the duo continued their march toward Cerulean. "I'll let that sink in a bit for you. Maybe if your Rocket buddies try busting you out of prison, you can communicate this to them and explain where they went wrong." Takuya stopped walking for a bit. "Anyways, to Cerulean we still go. Just because I had a 'deep' conversation with you doesn't mean I'm letting you go."

* * *

The bag fell off of Takuya's back and landed with a rough thud on the ground. "Jupiter, Eon, Perkūnas. Come forth!" He tossed the three Pokeballs into the air, letting his companions free into the earth once more. "Sorry about leaving you all cooped up like that for so long. I didn't want to appear like we were all ready for a battle when I was trying to send a criminal off to the...as my mother calls it, the slammer."

Takuya landed square on his rear end, looking up into the bright, early-morning sky. "It is SO NICE to be out here in the sun!" He commented, leaning all the way back. "Not just that, we're swimming in Yen! I never expected so many people to watch the vlogs we've posted thus far!" He tilted his head forward just a bit, looking southward. Over the large body of water he could see the dome of the Cerulean Gym along with a few other assorted buildings. Compared to Pewter City, which was a super-condensed town with a medium-sized population, complete with a foursome of solid-steel skyscrapers raising into the skyline, Cerulean's City was much more modest. The day before had been a blatant show of that. He didn't even realize he had walked into the city until he was close to the town's center. Compared to Pewter, or the much more grand and luxurious cities of Viridian or his hometown of Vermillion, the north-eastern city held no tall buildings over 4 or 5 stories. The Pokemon Center and Cerulean's Gym, which was a water type gym, were the tallest buildings. Even the Police Station wasn't more then a single floor in height.

"We've been walking our asses off since Monday. It's Sunday again. Not to mention we spent THREE days total underneath that danm mountain." Takuya kicked his footwear off, leaving his sock-covered feet out to the world. "I can't take this anymore. I've not had a bath since I was in Viridian." Leaning forward, he pulled the socks off of his feet. "And my clothes? Pfft. A Muck could live in these things and feel like he was making it cleaner." The next article to go was his jacket, followed by his pants, shirt, and briefs. This left him utterly disrobed and exposed to the elements. "Hey, at least I've got new soles for my shoes. NO MORE PAIN!"

"Jolt!"

"Vee!"

"Before I go any farther..." The male bent over toward his pack, grabbing the pair of zippers on one of the compartments and untying the strings he had used to keep it together. After untying the knot, he reached in and pulled out a small plastic bag filled with leaves. "Jupiter, get in the water." He remarked, reaching in and pulling out several of the leaves inside.

"Jolt!"

"Now." Takuya commented as he waded into the edge of the water. His serious tone seemed to snap the quadruped into line, and the electric-type came toward the water's edge. Hesitantly, he dipped his first foot within the wet substance before submerging all four of his legs and the majority of his body in the water. As soon as he did, the trainer was upon him, holding leaves in both hands and slapping them right onto the body of his Eeveolution. "These leaves should still work to take in the excess of the...charge." Takuya grimaced lightly as a few stray sparks from the fur touched his wet hands, making his arms feel a bit number then normal. Having been Jupiter's primary caretaker since he had evolved, he was used to taking some electrical discharges, especially when bathing. On occasion, he even looked at it as a sign of affection from him. That said, it still was much, MUCH safer to bathe him in water with the mineral-laden leaves.

While Takuya took great care to begin cleaning off the excess dirt from the spiky fur, Eon was just the opposite. She had no negative reaction to the water, being an un-evolved normal-type. After having been away from a large body of water for so long, she quickly and gladly splashed into the water side, not going nearly as far as the other two due to how short she was. The energetic splashing coupled with the cooing Eevee would have caught the attention of anyone else on the path. That was why Takuya had taken this northern route. After asking around a bit, he was informed that Route 24, and it's sister path 25, were dead-end routes. While they had once been occupied by various trainers, any time Cerulean was under a crisis, the people on that route would rush back to the main city, coming together to rebuild in this case.

The afternoon before, Takuya had showed up just as the rains cleared up for good. After dropping the captured criminal off at the station, and subsequently being verbally reprimanded for taking the law into his own hands, he spent a few yen on new soles. While the weather had set him back time-wise; the entire city being under a state of repair with even the Gym Leader working on the buildings in question, it gave him some time to relax.

For that reason, most of the trainers that would normally have been here were still in the main city. It left him free to bathe himself, his pokemon, and eventually clean his clothes, without concern of freaking people out with public indecency. He already had come into 'bad terms' with the police here. After relaxing in a hotel for the first time in in what felt like years, Takuya had been sought out by the local officer Jenny of the area and brought back to the police station, where he was to testify about the situation surrounding his round-up of the Team Rocket member. While his story was taken with harsh stares, bloody 'Only Ones' thought they were the only ones that should be allowed and capable of handling criminals, it was generally accepted due to a similar testament by the Rocketeer.

"Perkūnas. Time to switch. It's your time in the water."

"Pika Pika." The electric mouse took several steps back, shaking his head.

"Either that, or your going to need to clean yourself off to the point that I can't distinguish your smell from the cleaner smells of myself, Jupiter, and Eon."

"Pika..." The mouse type begin his own personal grooming regimen, raising his arms and roughly nipping at them while trying to grind the dirt out of it.

"Jupiter, you're free to go." Takuya pushed his first electric-type out toward the land. Spreading his arms in a Jesus-like fashion, he dropped his body into the water, letting it come up and flow over him. His mind was still heavy with what had transpired last night. After turning in his recount of the events at Mt. Moon, he was given a quick briefing of what he missed out on. According to the testimony of the man, the four Team Rocket members had been stationed in the bottom of Mt Moon to wait out the typhoon intentionally. While there, they were to turn off the generator in the lowest levels, the generator that he had noticed but never inquired or asked about, and afterwords raid and burn the city to the ground.

Takuya never had known there was a city there. Apparently it was small, only home to about 15 people, between 4 houses, and a small shopping center. Apparently it was a hub for people lost within Mt Moon...on it's upper levels and not the lower ones. It also was, along with the Poke-center outside of that mountain, a place well known for it's trade between citizens of Pewter and Cerulean city. However, due to his mysterious mental blackout, coupled with the fact that he took the lower routes rather then the higher ones, everyone who was in the city was slaughtered. The city was likely burned to the ground by the very flame-thrower that Takuya turned in along with the criminal as an unlicensed weapon.

This led to the next interesting issue. While talking to the Rocketeer, the guy made a quick turn, having once insulted him by trying to call him a Pokephiliac, then later accusing him of not understanding the emotions such a bond could cause. It was a curious thing. Not to mention, his later brief rant about Team Rocket's plans seemed to counter to what the man's own beliefs might have been. Was Team Rocket paying people to work in their services? And it didn't clear up a larger question. How could the same guy, who had been working with other Rocketeer's while Poaching Pokemon back at Viridian Forest, also be working on 'liberating' them inside of Mt. Moon.

Takuya realized he was staring while thinking, having stopped in the middle of his own cleansing process. "Wait..." Something caught his eye back on land. While just south of Route 25 was the water he was currently washing himself and his team at, north of it was a forest. A forest which seemed to have taken significant damage recently.

The male walked out of the water, taking a quick look around to ensure that there was no humans in the area that would give him trouble for his nudity. No one seemed to currently be around. With that in mind, he hustled across the open plain, looking closely at the edge of the forest. Several trees were snapped as if a great forced had plowed into them, snapping them about a meter or two from the ground. Other looked to have been knocked on the side by a large, powerful mass, evidenced by the large indentations in the sides of the various trees.

"What in the hell happened here?" He gently ran his hands over the indents and destroyed trees, smelling the wet wood. "This couldn't have been from the Typhoon. Something large must have showed up here. Showed up and done battle." He stepped back, silently listening to the forest, half-expecting to hear whatever it was that had done such damage. While there was no special noise that came from within, he felt a bit apprehensive even at the situation, knowing that something very powerful must have crashed through the area.

* * *

I don't know if this counts as 'filler' or not. I tried to make the scene all relevant to the character development and world building I've been trying to make here, along with setting up several other 'big reveals' for later.


	9. An Obvious Outcome

Not really proud of this chapter...but the next 15 chapters that I have written after it seem decently good. Sorry about the lack of quality and quantity, but I think you can understand the problem.

* * *

"Cerulean Gym. Home to the tomboyish mermaid: Misty..." Takuya stood upright again, looking at the sign. "Jupiter, Perkūnas. Come on."

The Pikachu and Jolteon complied, following the male teenager as he stepped up toward the front door. They slid open in front of his face, and he was greeted with a burst of hot and humid air, the thick smell of Chlorine striking him hard. He automatically squinted his eyes a bit before continuing into the room, adjusting quickly to the atmosphere change.

In front of him was a large pool. Several women were in the water, trying to roll long ropes from one end to another of the massive water-holding depression. "Excuse me..."

One of the women looked up, her brown eyes picking up on the young trainer. "Let me guess, another badge challenger?"

"...Yeah..."

"Sisters, roll it back up. Lily, go get Misty. We have another trainer."

"We just completed a duel not more then 15 minutes ago. I'm not even sure if Misty's Pokemon are fully recuperated.

"I can wait if it's necessary." Takuya remarked in response. "It's not like I have to be somewhere today."

One of the other girls jumped out of the pool, water dripping off of her swimsuit, and ran off toward a door closer to the back of the Gym's front room. "Let me guess. You're another Johto trainer that is flying through here just to try and earn badges you don't need."

"Not hardly. I'm from Vermillion City. This would be only my second gym battle."

"You fought LT Surge then came all the way over here!?"

"Not hardly. I took a shortcut to Pewter city to test my Pokemon's weaknesses. I came here next because it was next in line AND to challenge their strengths."

"I'm here, I'm here! Do we have ANOTHER challenger?" Takuya snapped his attention as a orange haired-female walked out of one of the rooms at the rear of the building. She was adorned in a white one-piece swimsuit, and overtop of is she pulled on a light blue jacket. He could easily identify her as the gym leader of the city from the way she carried herself, confident with a hint of irritation in her voice and walk.

"Misty, this kid isn't from Johto. He's only earned a single badge thus far."

"Oh...that's good to know." Misty walked over to a panel on the side of the wall, pressing her hand into one section of it as a slab popped out of the wall. "Golduck and Lapras took quite a beating with that last trainer."

Takuya shuffled his feet just a bit, then looked over his shoulder at his two electric-types. "We've already got this in the bag." He remarked.

"You there, what's your name?"

"Takuya Serizawa. You must be the gym leader Misty, Right?"

"Yes. Let's just get this over with. I had things planned and the pool should have been open to public service by now." She walked over to one of the pool sides, holding up the two Pokeballs she took from the wall panel. The last of the women hustled out of the pool, clearing it for a battle zone. "I'll put it to you nice and quick kid. The edges of the ring is realistically the walls. Anywhere within this room is a location prime for attack."

"Fine by me."

She smiled a bit, then tossed the ball in her left hand up toward the sky. "Staryu, I choose you!"

"Perkūnas, you're up!"

The pentagram-shaped pokemon dived into the water, readying for an attack. As opposed, the pikachu stood on the edge of the water, looking down to find his enemy.

"Staryu, harden yourself up against the attack!"

"Perkūnas, Thundershock the water. It'll take the opponent out!"

The result was almost instant. Despite the water-type trying to harden it's defenses, it's natural weakness to water-types coupled with the high conductivity of the water took the starfish-like pokemon out of the battle instantly.

"Electric Types. It's really effective." One of the girls remarked to the other.

"Especially against living things!" Takuya automatically replied to the comment.

Misty sighed in frustration. "At least this is going to be quick, but I can already tell where this is going. Staryu, return! Starmie, I choose you!"

The challenger that had been knocked out was quickly replaced by it's evolution, fresh and ready for battle. Takuya clicked his tongue. "Perkūnas, take a break. Jupiter, you're up!"

The pikachu, still a bit confused by just how easily the situation fell into his favor, looked back at his trainer in confusion before running on all fours toward him. His replacement leapt forward, taking his place beside the edge of the pool.

"Starmie! Rapid Spin Attack! Take it out before it takes you out!"

"Jupiter, Thundershock him!"

The 10-pointed starfish pokemon spun out of the water like a flying boomerang, heading right toward it's electric opponent. As it rushed forward to engage in close-combat, a stream of electric energy from the Jolteon impacted Misty's second pokemon. The strike did not alter it's course, but it did take a large amount of health off. Jupiter braced for impact as the water-type smashed into him, hitting him with all ten arms, one after the other. He slid back just a bit, reaffirming his position on the ground and stubbornly holding his own.

"Follow up with another Thundershock! It will take him out!"

Just as the attack stopped and the Water/Psychic type landed on three of its 'arms', Jupiter hit it with another powerful burst of electric energy. The impact caused it to leap into the air for a brief second, before landing 'face' down on the ground, knocked out in only two attacks.

There was a moment of silence as Misty recalled her second pokemon. "Is that it...we won already?" Takuya asked, shouting across the pool.

"Yeah." Misty remarked, starting to walk around the edge of the pool. "Does it surprise you that much?"

"Kind of. After the difficult battle we had in Pewter City."

"You had electric types. I had water types." She reached into a pocket on the inside of her jacket. "Go figure." She pulled a teardrop shaped emblem from her clothes, displaying it to the trainer. "If I was able to use my normal group, I could have kicked your but. However, Gym rules require that for someone with that few badges, I can only use two pokemon. Besides, my main team is already all wiped out."

"How so?"

"Some Johto girl passed through a few minutes ago. Don't know what was up with her. She only had two or three badges from Johto, everything else was Kanto-centric. She fights like the devil though."

"Hard to believe you could have lost to her." Takuya smirked. "Johto trainers are rarely dedicated enough to do anything with themselves, especially here in Kanto. They think that because they ended up on the high side of the war, that they don't need to train and learn the hard knocks of life."

Misty's face fell to a frown. "Not hardly. Most Johto trainers just have no reason to cross the mountains to come here. Same goes for us here in Kanto. That's what was so weird about it."

"Either way, thanks for the badge."

"Don't mention it. Like I said, you pretty much backed into it." Misty walked away, starting to shout things out to the girls in the room as she did so.

Takuya turned around, his electric types walking beside him as he pinned the badge to his lapel. The doors slid open as he left his second gym. "Pika Pi?"

"I have no idea what your saying. All I know is...that did not feel like a battle. There was almost no challenge in it at all." The trainer looked up, just in time to see a red-headed male crash into him. While neither of them fell, the recent badge winner stepped back several feet. "Whoa whoa whoa! What's the rush?"

"Out of my way scum. I've got a badge to win."

"Good luck with that. Between me and some mystery Johto trainer, all of Misty's pokemon are out of commission. You're going to be waiting a long time!"

The person looked up at Takuya with black eyes, groaning in agony. "Danm it. I'll never catch that bitch then."

Jupiter and Perkūnas watched in confusion as the other teenager stormed into the gym. "Jolt?"

"That guy is intense..." He reached around his belt, tossing his other pokeball onto the ground. "Eon, come join us for a little walk. It's a long way toward the Power-Plant, and I intend to take advantage of the journey. Especially considering that the southbound route to Saffron is closed."

"Vee?"

* * *

Yes, I know. It's short. What the hell did you expect me to do? Electric-types FRY Water types with the type advantage alone. I couldn't write anything else, the next chapter was supposed to bring in an important new character, and I didn't want to split that up.


	10. From Another Land

Just FYI, if you are one of those people that immediately jump to the last chapter because a story has been updated, I recommend you go and quickly read the last one. This was a dual uploaded.

Never expected the music from the Persona series to help me focus on writing so much...

* * *

With a rough twist the lid for the water canteen was sealed up once more. Bending back down toward his pack, he stuffed the container back into the pack. "Jupiter, Eon, Perkūnas. Let's go."

The Eevee looked up from it's position along the waterside, it's face slightly wet after consuming water from the nearby stream. Having been called to attention, she bounded toward her owner, looking with curiosity. The Jolteon followed suit, having similarly been refreshed and ready to continue it's journey. In contrast, the Pikachu was laying on it's back, sleeping as the end of it's tail twitched occasionally from between it's legs. Regardless of what Takuya said, it's not likely he would have woken up at all.

"We don't have much of a choice." He sighed. "I wasn't exactly planning to get wet today, but we'll have to swim to get across this stream." His eyes gazed at the other side of the small river. "Since none of you guys can surf or anything like that, I'll need to see if I can cross this hurdle myself..." He pulled out his two pokeballs. "Jupiter, Perkūnas, return!" The two of them were transferred back into data-energy, leaving only the brown-furred Pokemon to deal with. Eon jumped off the ground, pawing at Takuya's jacket with it's claws before it finally got a good catch in the fabric.

"Eon..."

The female then leaped the rest of the way up, positioning itself atop of his head, it's extra weight and size putting a strain on the trainer. "Eon...off...of my head..." The normal-type was already complying, turning it's body and sliding down the back of his neck. The strain was lessened as quadruped sat on the top-section of his pack, her stomach resting on his neck and the back of his head. Her paws rested in his blackish-blue hair, messing it up more then it already had been.

"Vee!"

"I'm amazed you still remember that we did this years ago." Takuya remarked as he waded into the water. "But don't blame me if you end up wet from this ordeal." He winced just a bit as the water rose up above his waist, and felt the force. It wasn't terribly overwhelming, but annoying in itself and would make it very draining to swim across. "I'll need a water-type if I want to cross anything larger then this." Switching his body to a swimming position, he began to attempt a breast-stroke while holding his head above the water the entire time. "How about it...Eon? Vaporeon evolution for you?"

She merely gripped his head really tight, her claws digging into this scalp.

"No? I doubt you'd want to be another Jolteon. How about a fire-type?"

"Vee!" Her claws still dug into his head as he finally reached the other side of the stream, shifting his body so his feet could touch the bottom again.

"Well forgive me. We're hardly ever doing anything at night but sleep so that rules out a Umbreon. You saying you want a Espeon evolution?" Her claws still dug into his scalp. "Eon..."

He tilted his head back as he finally left the water, and she leapt off of his head, shaking her body violently. Water was flung everywhere as the normal-type attempted to remove the excess. "Vee!"

"I told you not to blame me if you got wet." He chuckled as he looked at the small quadruped trying to resolve the issue. "Still, let's keep going." Takuya took a handful of steps forward, looking toward the path ahead until something caught his eye.

"Is that...is it?"

Several meters away, a Vulpix could be seen nipping at it's fur. It's seven tails draped around it's sides and back turned toward the human and his companion. Even despite the noise he had made conversing with Eon, it didn't appear to notice them. But that's not what got his attention.

"That's a...THAT'S A FUCKING SHINY!"

Shiny Pokemon were all the rage, all the time. Similar to the normal pokemon in every-way except one. They seemed to posses a genetic alteration, not necessarily a defect, that would given them radically different colors then normal. Sometimes, they would be little more then color inverse patterns then the pokemon's normal scheme. In the case of the Vulpix that was in the distance, it made it's color scheme an almost-golden yellow. The exception would be it's septet of tails and the mess of fur atop of it's head, which was an unmistakable gold color when compared to the rest of it.

"...I could use a fire-type." Takuya looked down to his Eevee, who looked up in response. "Eon, we are SO going to catch that one! Concentrate...focus your energy. It doesn't notice us yet." The brown and white furred pokemon complied, crouching into an offensive stance. A few second passed with a hard stare on Takuya's face. He took several deep breaths, grabbing one of the empty pokeballs around his waist. He didn't want to knock the thing out, but he did need it weakened enough so it wouldn't fight against the Pokeball. "Now. Quick Attack it."

Eon raced forward, it's small frame carrying it rapidly across the expanse, her lungs heaving. The number of meters between the two pokemon closed rapidly, and like someone flipped a switch the shiny Vulpix looked up, seeing the charging brown and white furred creature. It pulled back into a defensive-like stance, and unleashed a series of flames from it's mouth. Eon jumped to the side to dodge it, and the shiny turned to face it head on just as the slightly smaller quadruped slammed it's shoulders into the fire-type, knocking it back several inches as the Eevee repeatedly battered it.

The Vulpix had enough, spinning around and repeatedly whipping the normal-type with it's collection of tails, battering it in the face. "Eon! Ignore that and whip him back!" Takuya's companion gladly complied, jumping to the side and smashing it's busy tail in the face of the Fire-type. Vulpix tried to tackle back, but Eon leapt to the side.

"You're MINE!" Takuya shouted at a loud volume, and just as the shiny pokemon's attention shifted from the battle to the human as he tossed his pokeball at the gold-furred rarity. In mid-air the ball opened up, a beam of white energy shooting out and encompassing the wild pokemon in mere seconds. Just after it was encompassed, the creature vanished into the sphere, and it dropped to the ground, twitching several times in order to confirm the capture.

"Perfect job Eon! I couldn't have been more impressed!"

"Vee!"

"As for you..." Takuya grabbed the ball and tossed it upward, spilling the beam of energy back into the real world as it solidified back into the golden Vulpix. "Welcome to the team!"

The Vulpix looked around a few minutes in confusion, unsure of what was going on. It's face made contact with the human as he knelt beside it. "My name is Takuya. This is Eon here." It's black eye looked at the two, almost with a studying look before it barked out in confirmation and satisfaction.

"Vuplix...shiny Vulpix..." Takuya brought a finger up to his face. "What gender are you...that somewhat helps to determine the name." He ran his hands on it's back, wrapping his fingers around the base of it's tails and feeling the layout and position of it's rear hips. "Female."

It continued to stare right at Takuya, eyes not unlocking. "What?" The oddest thing about it was how it didn't blink or anything, just continued to stare almost blankly at it's new master. Takuya locked eyes back, entering something that looked akin to a staring match.

Eon's head went back and forth between the two for a while, before it finally had an idea what was going on. She put her upper paws on Takuya's knee, rapidly pushing while crying "Vee! Vee!" the entire time, trying to snap him out of it. It must have worked, because it got Takuya to turn and looked at Eon. "That was...what was that?" He stood up, looking at the two females. Eon still looked with concern in her eyes. The vulpix looked up at him also, almost smiling with malicious intent as it came up to the trainer.

"Did it use...a psychic move on me?" He scratched his chin for a moment. "I know that Vulpixes can learn psychic attacks if birthed by powerful Ninetales, but I don't recall any sort of...hypnotism."

The vulpix came and rubbed up against it's master, it's golden fur a sharp contrast to his jeans. "I guess I need to be a bit more careful around this one..."

"Vee?" Eon looked in confusion and a bit of fear at the duo, but as it talked, the Vulpix turned and snapped at the female Eevee, causing her to step back in confusion.

"It reminds me of a Kitsune...Like those legendary Yakos and Ninkos..." He looked back down at the shiny. "Ninko? Does that work for you?" It barked back, possibly in confirmation. "Very well then. Ninko, welcome to the team."

Eon and Ninko looked at each-other again, their eyes locking for a brief second until the Eevee turned to look elsewhere, breaking eye contact.

* * *

"Archie, take it down!"

Takuya had only ran into a few other trainers on Route 9 leading onto 10, most of them falling prey quickly to Jupiter and Perkūnas. Even his Eevee was becoming very battle-toned, to the point that she was taking on entire rounds of matches with no assistance. The sound of another trainer perked Takuya's interest, hoping to earn some more yen from such a battle.

"Good job. That's a Ekans ready for transport!"

Takuya stepped off the beaten path, looking for this new possible rival. Sliding down the rocky ledge, one hand grinding the slanted earthen wall for balance, he landed on a beach that was likely part of the southern continuation of the river he had crossed earlier.

"Hey! Wanna battle?"

The female stood up, her back still turned to Takuya. Her white labcoat was stained with marks from burns, grass, and dirt. It made an interesting contrast to her hair, a teal blue in color. It pulled outward from the back of her head, making 45 degree angles downward from her head before they turned upward, looking stiff all the way through. Turning around, Takuya could see her bright yellow and black shorts, coupled with a red shirt and blue eyes not that dissimilar from his own.

The Arcanine she had been talking to mere minutes earlier stood on all fours, easily coming to her stomach. "Arc..."

"Pffft. You're just like all the other pathetic kids I've seen in this region. Sure I'll battle, but I play for money or keeps only."

"I don't play for fun or keeps, just money." Takuya felt the front most pair of pokeballs on his right and left hips, all four full with ready Pokemon. "How much are you willing to bet?"

The female raised one hand to her head, making a mock-like tapping motion on her forehead. "In relation to the other trainers I've battled here, I'm willing to bet 1500 that Archie here, alone, will take out all of your pokemon regardless of what you try."

Takuya slapped his knee, and began laughing. "I highly doubt that." He smirked darkly. "I'll bet you the exact same amount that I can take out your Arcanine, and any other two pokemon you choose, with my four."

"It's a deal then. Prepare to get whipped little boy." She pointed toward the space between the two of them, and her Arcanine took a battle stance.

"Oh...your into that kind of stuff, eh?" The male smirked, then pulled one of the pokeballs off of his belt. "Perkūnas, it's battle time!" The Pikachu landed on the ground, locking it's eyes on target within seconds.

"Archie, use an Ember attack!"

"Perkūnas, dodge and hit him back with a Thunderwave!"

Before the command was even finished, a burst of fire rushed at the Pikachu, giving it no chance to escape as the flames engulfed him. Despite this, the Pikachu burst out of the fire shortly afterwords, electricity charged in it's cheeks and sent flying at the Psuedo-Legendary. The dog-like creature stumbled backwards a bit before solidly regaining it's footing, taking some damage from the hit.

"Follow it up with a Quick Attack!"

"Archie, use your Extreme Speed to overwhelm it." The female called back, using as sweet of a voice as she could muster. The fire-type was suddenly gone, and even Perkūnas stopped for a moment, confused as to where the target went.

"Oh no... Perkūnas!" Takuya suddenly noticed the large slab of burned fur and scorched flesh on his Pikachu's right side. That would definitely prove costly. Before he could even fully process the situation, the massive dog appeared, slamming head-first into the burned side of the Pikachu. It launched the electric mouse into the air, landing on it's other side and rolling several times, unconscious.

"Shimatta... Perkūnas, return! Jupiter, you're up!" He quickly switched up the pokemon at his disposal, ready to use his considerably more powerful electric type. "Jupiter, beware. This thing moves fast, maybe even faster then you. I don't know what she's been feeding it, but remember that controlled Speed is Key!"

"Jolt!"

"Archie, Flamethrower!"

"Jupiter, Thundershock him!"

The two rays of energy met in the middle, briefly fighting out in a back-and-forth motion. For several seconds, it appeared that the two were even! That changed dramatically, as the Arcanine pumped in more energy to the blast, pushing it back and overwhelming the Jolteon. It resulted in a fiery explosion as it hit the section of ground where Jupiter had been standing, and he leapt back, barely avoiding the largest brunt of the blast.

Takuya turned his head and shielded his eyes from the force, but he did get a chance to look at his rival through the flames. She merely stood there, her hands on her hips and a wide grin plastered on her face. "Archie, Flame-Wheel!"

"Jupiter, Sand-Attack him and hit him with a Quick-Attack!"

As the spiral of flames rushed toward the Eeveloution, Jupiter pulled back into a ready stance, prepared to launch forward. He did so just as the flames closed in, avoiding them all and running nearly in a haze until he crashed into the side of the large fire dog, kicking up large amounts of sand and dirt into the face of the fire type.

"Archie! Bite Down before he gets away!"

"Jupiter, Dodge and hit again with a Quick-Attack! It should be blind right now!"

Neither really knew that the battle would change tone with that, but it did. Before long the two Pokemon were jumping back and forth, Arcanine with unbelievable speed and Jupiter with not-as-fast but still well-controlled speed. After several more jumps and dodges, Jupiter got his attack in as the psuedo-legendary took too long sliding to a stop, allowing him to crash into it's back.

"Jupiter, you've got him! Thundershock again!"

Just as the electric-type did so, pumping electric energy into his opponent, the female's pokemon turned around and bit down right onto the neck of it's attacker.

"Jupiter!"

The bite eventually weakened, and the fiery dog fell to the ground, rendered unconscious. "To bad,that income's been lost. Little Miss..." The female pulled out two pokeballs, one used to recall her first attacker while the other held what would be her second. "Show 'em who's boss!"

Takuya's jaw fell open as the next pokemon came out, ready to do battle. It was a floating pokemon, plainly ghost-type due to it's semi-translucent state. It's color was a dark bluish-green, but with lilac hair-like appendages on it's head. It was small, just slightly larger then it's owner's head, and floated several feet in the air. "That's a...That's a..." He had trouble remembering the exact name of the pokemon, but he knew it wasn't a resident of the Kanto region normally. "YOU must be the Johto trainer Misty was talking about!"

The female's eyes widened as the Kanto local pointed at her. "Oh? Misty referenced me? I feel kind of honored." She smiled, then looked back at him with a dark grin that even gave Takuya the chills. "Maybe this will help teach you Kanto vermin to actually try to live up to something! Little Miss, hit him hard with a Psywave!"

Jupiter stood back as a series of purple translucent waves emanated from the ghost-type's head, floating across the expanse and hitting him in the head. It took several seconds, but Jupiter collapsed, it's mind under attack from an extremely foreign source.

"Jupiter!...Grrr." Takuya called back his second electric-type and released Eon, hoping her resistance to Ghost moves would prove effective. "Eon! We don't have many options, but biting it should be super-effective! Chew the undead crap out of it!"

"You know, you're really cute when you get angry." The female remarked, clicking her tongue and shaking her head. "Little Miss, hit this one with a Psywave also!"

Eon leapt back as she tried avoiding the waves, but not fast enough as she also stumbled under the effects. Unlike Jupiter, who had taken a beating prior, she was still able to stand, but very groggily.

"Eon! Bite down on it before it gets another one in on you!"

"Veeeeee." The Eevee still stumbled a bit, and the Misdreavus came right up into it's face.

"Give it a little scare..."

The face of the ghost-type contorted into a strange shape as it's mouth opened wide and eyes rolled back into it's head, letting out a loud female squeal. Eon jumped back in fear, only for the fear to be overcome by anger as she struck forward, biting down hard on the semi-translucent pokemon. It's fear went from forced and fake to real and painful, flying around as it dragged the normal-type behind it.

"Good job Eon! Keep biting down and don't let it get away!"

"Little Miss...MISDREAVUS!" The ghost-type stopped whining and looked at it's master, the Eevee still giving it a death grip with it's jaws. "Psywave that one also!"

"Eon! Let go and DODGE!"

Before she could do either, the waves emanated from the opponent again and overwhelmed the normal-type, dropping the brown-furred creature onto it's back, rendered unconscious like the three before it.

"Shimatta!" Takuya grabbed his last ball with his last hope. "She's still on her second Pokemon...Ninko, don't let me down!"

The Vulpix was soon released from her own container, it's fur shinning brightly in the early-afternoon sun.

"You have a fucking shiny!? No fair!"The Johto native put on a pout-like face, before lighting it back up with a smile once more.

"Ninko, do you...what!?" The already golden pokemon turned a bright white, then from it's back it released a large burst of light into the sky above, making the already sunny day seem even brighter...and hotter.

"What the hell...Special moves?" The teal-haired woman gritted her teeth. "Fine, If you want to play it that way...Little Miss, show that Vulpix who's boss!"

The hovering pokemon came right up into the shiny's face, stretching it's face into a strange shape like before, letting out another bloodcurling scream. The whole time, the Vulpix stood her ground and stared it down.

Takuya just stepped back, not sure what to make of the situation as it was spiraling out of his control. He had no more Pokemon, and Vulpix was unlikely to be able to sustain enough damage to finish off the Misdreavus and whatever pokemon she would send out next. While on the outside he looked paralyzed in concern and hesitation, mentally he lost all control of his thoughts as they buzzed around at light speed.

During the starring match, the ghost type pokemon suddenly twitched, then twitched again. Like an exhausted kid falling into sleep at night, the foreginer's 2nd pokemon dropped from the sky and landed on the ground, going into a deep slumber. All the while, the shiny kitsune stood there, briefly yawning in boredom. The two just stood there for several seconds as the female trainer frantically tried calling her pokemon and getting her to respond. "Little Miss...Misdreavus! WAKE UP MISDREAVUS OR I WILL MOVE YOUR FOOD TO THE STREET!"

The golden Vulpix broke it's eye contact right afterwards, looking over it's shoulder at the male as if to wonder what the next move to make was. "Uhhh, Ninko...Ember?" The male hesitantly called out, looking at the situation which had unfolded with confused eyes. The quadreped quickly picked up on the order, swelling it's chest up and releasing a dazzling spectacle of flames onto the sleeping pokemon, coating it and rendering it unconscious.

"Fine! If special attacks is how you want to make this battle spin...Natee! You're up!"

The next opponent released onto the field was a small, bird like Pokemon with almost no body. It was decked in green feathers on it's near-spherical head, a pair or red, yellow, and black striped wings attached to where it's ears would normally be.

"Natu...Ninko, try doing whatever the hell it was you did earlier..."

The Vulpix bounced right into the face of the small bird Pokemon, staring it down like it had stared down the pokemon before it. The bird merely stood there for several seconds, until it's eyes suddenly slipped shut, opened back up, then shut once more.

"I'm amaz-"Takuya was cut off as suddenly the eyes opened back up on the flying/psychic type, and the vulpix even leaped back in shock.

"Natee won't be lulled to sleep that easily! Night shade her Natee!"

The Bird jumped into the air, making itself look even larger then before, causing the shiny to retreat several more steps. "Show her the real PECK-ing order!" The tiny bird jumped forward, landing on the back of the creature as it banged it's beak into the fire-type several times over.

"Ninko, Whip that thing off of you!"

A weight shift did push the bird-like Pokemon off of the kitsune, and she followed up quickly with six subsequent tail whips, flattening the bird-type on the ground.

"Natee, finish her off by just pecking her to death!"

"Ninko, use Quick-Attack to remove any chance of her hitting you!"

The fire-fox raced as fast as it could toward the opponent, but just as she began to slam her bodymass into the creature, it jumped and landed on her head, pecking at her face. The Vulpix stopped, trying to shake the opponent off before suddenly collapsing to the ground with a yelp.

"Critical Hit!" The female shouted, jumping into the air. "I shouldn't have bet so high, but you didn't stand a chance!" After jumping off of it's fallen enemy, even the Natu began leaping up and down in rythm with it's trainer.

Takuya looked down at his unconscious pokemon, starring at it blankly in confusion. He pulled out his pokeball, porting the golden-furred creature in. "Show me..."

"Huh?"

"Show me..." He looked her right in the face, and fell to his knees. "What the hell happened at the end there!"

"Don't you know about..."

"No I don't know! Every since I caught that Vulpix this morning, weird things have happened with it. I can't grow with a pokemon that I don't understand!"

The blindly bright light in the sky slowly faded away back to the normal sun, allowing the female to look beyond the battle and at the male on the other side of the ring. She could see his fist clenched up, tears of fear running down his face. The emotions of confusion and frustration were thick in his eyes.

"I know you know about this, it's not something I can just go online and look up, or ask another trainer about. I need to know now."

The teal-haired trainer scratched her arm in anxiety, unsure of what to make of the situation. Nearly everyone else she had ran into in the Kanto region were assholes to her once they found out about her Johto heritage. While she was often a pain back, she refused to let her place of birth hinder the respect she believed she deserved. However, that was a belief that she had nearly given up on. Until now.

The female walked over to him, lending out her hand infront of his face. He looked at it, and right up at her. "The name's Kris. I've never seen one of you Kanto kids so humble or willing before. I'll show you what I know about Pokemon, and things you never would have dreamed were possible."

He looked at her face intently, a half-smile gracing her features as her blue eyes stared right back into his. Hoping that there was no malicious intent behind it, he took her hand, and she pulled him up onto his feet. "My name is Takuya...Takuya Serizawa. Nice to meet you, Kris."


	11. An Imagined Altering of Fate

"Any better?"

Perkūnas winced a bit, then sighed in the female's arms. She gentlty rubbed the burned section with the salve, soothing the pain and dulling the damage done to the nervous system. "Pika-chuuu."

"I thought so..." She remarked, stroking the back of the pikachu sitting on her lap as she looked at the male sitting across from her. He had his legs pulled up underneath him, starring intently at the four pokeballs in front of him. One was empty, Perkūnas was getting treatment. His gaze was more solid on the other three. "Starring at them won't answer any questions or heal them."

"I know, I know..." He sighed. "It's just...I need to know everything about them."

"Why do you say that?" Kris asked, scratching the back of Perkūnas' head. He sighed in relaxation from the feminine attention.

"Like I've told anyone else who's asked, I didn't start this journey solely for one reason. For one, I wanted to answer the question as to 'why' Pokemon would choose to bond with trainers, even dealing with competition from other Pokemon. Secondly, I wanted to prove that mentally, I was there. Physical ability only takes you so far, I wanted to know that I could strategize, and strategize well."

"That's helpless." The teal-haired female remarked, leaning back a bit.

"How so?" Takuya finally took his eyes off the balls and focused on his female 'companion'.

"Strategy in a Pokemon battle is a crap-shoot. You can have the most powerful pokemon, like the Legendary Mew or Lugia, and know all it's in's, outs, and weaknesses. Then, without even realizing it, your enemy gets a lucky critical hit in. Just like that, whatever you had planned out fails."

"There is an element of chance in everything." Takuya remarked, standing up and stretching his arms. "It's to be expected of life. The point of strategy in a pokemon battle would be to overcome any type of chance like that before it hinders you."

"And that's where you are wrong." She commented back. "Lesson #1, You don't develop a strict strategy for anything. A loose one would help, but a strict one can be derailed easily. Not to mention, you won't know everything about your enemy until your engaging it." She went silent for a minute, focusing on the Pikachu in her lap. "The first rule of combat is to know your enemy. But in pokemon battles, we don't fight with that knowledge for a reason. Everyone, from trainers to casual battlers to even professors and company heads battle because it satisfies a craving we all have. You could say that most of our society has a gambling addiction, and we are all trying to stack the odds in our own favor."

Takuya intently stared at her, trying to process what she was saying. "So you mean that...because we aren't here to actually defeat each-other like we would in, let's say, a war, we aren't coming with knowledge of the enemy."

"Exactly. And when making a strategy, especially any type of tight-knit one, you would need to have that knowledge. Now I'm not saying a strategy going into a battle isn't helpful, it is, especially if you can take into account things such as weather, special abilities, type preferences, weaknesses, personality and locations. But Human beings, and to an extent Pokemon, don't operate on a per-defined system of actions."

The male smiled, reaching behind him and grabbing his leg as he swung it up behind him, yanking it as the joints within snapped. "That's the beauty of human nature and life on this earth."

"Naturally. With some exceptions, it makes us all hard to control and hard to combat. You seem to have forgotten the unpredictability of nature, and tried to force your own small team to battle on what you want the world to be set up like. In a battle, sometimes the pokemon knows best. And sometimes, you know best, but only at that moment under pressure. Or none of you know best, and you just leave it up to chance. There is no mathematical bullshit behind it..."

"Actually..."

Kris glared at Takuya. "Fine, professors and scientists have crunched numbers to get some bullshit stats behind it, but even stats have room for error. Let's not get into that math stuff, it's a waste of my brain power."

The male chuckled. "Let me know when you have any kind of higher-math homework, I'll take care of it for you then."

"I left that kind of life behind a looooong time ago." She chuckled. "And to this day, I don't regret it one bit."

"Ok. Maybe you can help me out with this issue then." Takuya picked up one of the balls, the one that contained Ninko inside of it. "Ninko...she seems to have some sort of hypnotic ability. I know when I first got her she used it on me, and she also used it on your Misdraevus. But from everything I had researched before-hand, only very very powerful Ninetales could actually achieve a state of hypnotic suggestion."

"You told me your parent was a Pokemon 'doctor' without the plastic boob-job and pink hair, and yet you don't understand move breeding."

"What?"

"That's what I call it. Certain pokemon, when powerful enough, can breed abilities into their offspring. It's another case of random chance. That's it really."

"Ok... What about that bright light she shot into the sky? I've never seen anything like that before."

Kris stopped petting the pikachu for a moment, scratching the back of her own head nervously. "It's a complicated system. Nearly every pokemon have one or two special abilities that they can tap into with a little help. Some require special training, but I think all of them have at least one. I'll get back to Oak and Elm about that."

"All of them?"

"I think. Sometimes these abilities change as the pokemon evolve into it's next stage of life. They vary in what exactly they do. Some of them benefit the pokemon by giving them an extra little oddity in relation to the rest of that type. For instance, Natee is able to wake up from sleeping much quicker, as was demonstrated in our little battle back there."

"..."

"How did you not know about these? I assumed you trained your pokemon to take advantage of these when in battle, otherwise, it would have gone completely unused."

"What!?"

"Yeah." She eyes him carefully. "What? Are you saying you DIDN'T train your Vulpix into using it's Drought ability to alter the weather and blind us?"

"No! I only caught her just this morning! I never had been told about this special weather-altering ability before!"

"Well, you are from Kanto, and the information flow to here has been alot stricter then, for instance, Jotho and the rest of Japan. I know what I do from battling and capturing so many others, and only found out about the assigned names after looking it up recently."

A moment of silence succeed the two of them. "It's not like anyone would ditch a shiny, so she couldn't have been abandoned. And Pokemon normally don't take advantage of the ability on their own..."

The two looked at each-other for a prolonged period of time, then looked back at the pokeball holding the shiny fire-type inside.

* * *

"I am NOT staying out here in the rain!"

"Can't help you little lady. The power-plant isn't a hotel or Pokemon center. Besides, if this storm is going to be even a tenth as bad as they said it was, the place wouldn't be any safer then being in the open as it is."

Takuya ran his hands through his hair as another powerful gust of wind blew in from the west. He and Kris decided to stick together until they got to the next city, after which point they would probably head their separate ways again. Lavender town was supposed to be the next closest city, and the two of them could easily have made it there by about 11 at night had it not been for one thing.

Another storm was coming. The massive Typhoon had just passed over the Kanto region just two days ago, and had left a fair share of destruction. Kris, who had apparently taken residence in Pewter City after completing a Gym Battle there with Brock, had made statements about how badly the forest to the south of the town, along with the Museum that was in the city, had taken considerably large amounts of damage.

The idea that an abandoned power plant would be the place to go even for recreational purposes would be retarded any day of the week. The only major service it had provided in the last 30 years was a headquarters for the Joint Asian-American Military Alliance in the war that was nearly two decades gone now. Even then, little to no repairs had been made to the place, and while some of the machines inside still functioned, it was little more then a tourist attraction for people who like studying things from the time before the War and before the Pokemon Species boom.

"But surely you've got some repairs done on the place! Something suitable for us to shelter at, right?"

That was the interesting thing. Apparently about two weeks ago, the isolated island and the several acres that surrounded the island where the plant was located had been bought by Kanto Electric Central, the main provider of 'Clean' Commercial Energy for the Kanto region. Being from Vermillion, Takuya questioned that 'cleanliness' claim, but that was beside the point. Since then, some construction workers had appeared at the place and were going to repair the Abandoned Electricity Plant and get electricity pumping to the various cities of Kanto, likely lowering the prices of the electricity and turning more profit for them. NOT to mention how it would help to improve the economy, which while 'stable' in the loosest sense of the term, had never fully recovered after the war.

"We've only built a bridge to the island and patched some of the holes in the ceilings. Otherwise, it's a dump. We've not even gotten to clear out the pokemon in there yet." The large man swung a box of tools over his shoulder, and began walking away from the bridge and the large gates that had been set up in front of it.

Takuya's eyes widened. It was sheer genius! He stepped between the man and the truck he was walking toward quickly, holding up his hand. "I've got an idea. If you will let us in there, we'll get you guys a bit farther ahead of schedule by removing some of the excess pokemon inside of there. Free of charge."

The man stopped, looking up as if to weight the pros and cons of the situation. "We'll be out of there before noon tomorrow." Takuya added on.

"Don't go speaking for me!" The teenager threw a finger up to his lips as he turned and looked at his temporary companion.

The man sighed. "Fine. Let me throw these in the truck, I'll open the gates for you, and you can get in. But my men and I are coming back tomorrow, 12 o'clock sharp. If you all aren't out of there by that time or sooner..." He trailed off, looking to the darkening sky to think of a suitable follow-up.

"No worries. The road calls for us." The male said, trying to sound a bit comedic as to lighten the mood. All it earned him was a punch in the back of the head. "Ow..."

"Stay serious." The Teal-haired female remarked, frowning at him. The sound of the metallic tools being slung into the bed of the truck. The man grabbed the keys and jingled them as he proceeded back to the gate in front of the bridge, unlocked it, and let it swing open as the trainers ran in.

"Thank you sir!" Kris shouted back, waving over her shoulder while running down the bridge.

"Whatever. Don't going wrecking stuff up any more then it already is!"

The two ran through the open doorway of the plant, both stopping once inside in order to catch their breath. In the front room, several assorted metal pipes and tools were left around, the main evidence that any 'human' hands had touched the place in nearly 20 years. Everything else within the building seemed old an abandoned, almost like everyone had left in a hurry years back.

"Wonder why everyone had abandoned this place back then." Kris asked, finally stabilizing her breathing.

"Who knows. If we look around enough, maybe we'll find something." He remarked back, reaching into his pack and grabbing a flashlight off of one of the side pockets. "Let's try and find some higher ground in here."

"Why upper levels?"

"I don't want to know what lies beneath our feet really. With my luck, it will probably be a lot of Grimer and Muck down there, mixed with real muck, grime, and dust. Besides, closer to the top we'll be able to hear when the rain lets up, and we should also be able to tell what time of day it is." He looked over at Kris. "Do you have a light?"

She shook her head to the negative. "Alright. Fine. Stay close to me. And whatever you do, try to watch where you are going." Takuya reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out one of his knifes, flipping it open.

"What's that for?"

"I don't want something jumping me and killing me." He held the light up in front of him, arms straight as he held the knife directly underneath the flashlight while tilted to a slightly different angle.

The defining thing about the abandoned power-plant was that it was still 'active', so from beneath the two could still hear mechanical noises running. Kris briefly suggested heading downward again, but that was quickly shot down by her male companion.

"There."

Takuya suddenly stopped as if the female issued a Cease-And-Desist order from god. "What?" She merely pointed down into a side-room, expecting him to see something. He turned his light down the corridor, but outside of several wires, a half-hanging ceiling light, and lots of dust, nothing seemed out of place.

"I heard something make a noise." She whispered back at him.

Several moments of near silence had gone on in the dark corridors, but it was eventually broken, causing the male to switch off the light and folded up his knife."Perkūnas...you're the only one we've gotten to heal thus far. Don't let me down..." He tossed the ball onto the ground, and the Pikachu looked around in confusion for several seconds.

"Pika...PIKA!"

A loud screech sounded from the hall as a Magnemite floated down from the ceiling, it's large solitary eye gazing directly at the pikachu.

"Perkūnas...Hit him quickly with a Thundershock!"

The energy stored in the electric mouse's cheeks crackled, and was released with great power and accuracy at the flying dual type. It took the bolt head on, shaking it off shortly afterward and readying it's own Thundershock attack.

"Perkūnas, get another one going before he gets it in on you!"

Despite the command, the pure electric-type was unable to get the jump, and the two shot their bolts at the same time, meeting in the middle as the entire room and the adjacent ones lit up bright like daytime. "Pikachu, Don't let up!" Kris shouted at him, hoping to give some motivation. While the yellow-furred animal may have been 'weaker' when it came to power, it was more consistent and had much better endurance. The wild enemy fizzled out, and was hit eye-first by the burst of electric energy. The Magnemite fell to the ground, shook a bit before floating back up.

"Perfect." Takuya pulled one of the loose pokeballs off of his belt, and tossed it at the pokemon, capturing it in an instant. The room went dark again, and using the flashlight, Takuya reached over and picked the ball back up.

"That went well." He remarked, blowing on the sphere before re-hooking it to his belt. "But we press on now." He turned and began walking down the hallways again, looking for anyway to get higher in the building.

"Don't you think your team is a little...unbalanced?"

Takuya looked at the female as they began to traverse the hallways once more. "Now that you think of it...I have three electric types now, a normal, and a fire..." Perkūnas walked up beside them, listening to the conversation as it tried to keep up with their pace.

"You know, I could hit you up with a deal so you could sluff off your excess pokemon."

Takuya looked at her with curiosity, taking his eyes off the lit hallways to look at her shadow-darkened face. "Deal? What deal?"

"I have a contract with a Professor Oak here in Kanto. Maybe you've heard of the man."

"You mean the Viridian Gym Leader's grandfather? I've heard OF him."

"Our contract is that I collect as many pokemon for him as I can, so he can make the pokedex more accurate."

"That thing? It's laughed at by scientists all around. While it did a nice job of listing every pokemon here in Kanto, it fell far short of documenting the pokemon in your Johto region, and didn't come close to the variety in Honnen, Sinnoh, of even those outside of our nation. Would have helped if the kids he gave it to actually left this region and it's restrictions on importing pokemon from foreign locations."

"Whatever. Oak realized that most of the data readings were extreme, and for that reason he has tried getting more people to send him pokemon personally, so he can check the data on them and actually get more accurate readings. In return for the effort, I get good money."

"Yeah, but you forget that we have the Poke-net system. The thing that allows us to convert the pokemon into digital DNA code and sent them to other people if you wanted to trade or get rid of." His gaze shifted to the area infront of him, showcasing some stairs...even if they were in less then preferable shape due to time's effect on them. "Bingo."

"True. But his had broke down. I needed to personally come here to Kanto and drop the pokemon off. While here, I was invited to battle some of the Gym Leaders here by Oak."

They ascended the stairs in relative silence, their focus shifting more from the conversation to the safety of the stairs. Perkūnas had no trouble as his light-weight build let him spring up the stairs and actually had him waiting at the top for the trainers.

"Very well. What's the catch?"

"I'll need you to do a favor for me."

"Like what?" Takuya asked, scanning the 2nd floor with his light.

"I don't know." He turned and looked at the female, shinning the light on her and covering her form with the light.

"Seriously?"

"I don't have a bunch of stuff laying around that needs doing!" She snapped back at him angrily.

"Fine. I'm a pain to get in contact with on the road, though. You might be able to contact my parents though, they'd likely inform me of your needs when I get back to Vermillion."

* * *

Kris stared up into the rainy night sky. They eventually took shelter on what was likely one of the more western wings of the plant. She had a good view of the sky from a set of slats in the windows, looking as the rain poured from above. Pulling her legs up toward herself and wrapping her arms around them, she leaned forward.

"Maybe he'll make a decent boyfriend..." She looked the sleeping male over. "Just wish he would ditch that stupid band-aid on his head and he'd be decent material. I don't need an assholish boyfriend to be famous." Her subsequent yawn made her remember the deal they made, so Kris reached into her pocket, pulling out her pokedex. It was 1 in the morning. Time to switch the guard. She sighed while standing up. "Then again, staying single might make me seem more open to future male fans."

She walked over to Takuya, nudging him several times. "Takuya...Wake up Kanto boy..."

The teenager finally woke up after some prodding, but both hands quickly shot up to her shoulders, catching her in a locking grip. As calmly as she could, she spat out the information that it was time to switch guards. He let go, sitting up and walking toward one of the windows as she took her place on the sleeping bag she had laid out earlier.

He blindly looked out toward the sky, running his hands over the pokeballs on his belt. He did have enough materials to bring his team back to health after his battle that morning with his temporary companion, and in an effort keep himself from falling asleep again, he let out Eon, the brown and white furred pokemon ending up on the floor several feet away from him.

"Hey Eon. Just needed another waking companion."

"Ee-Vee?"

"Sorry about throwing you into a Dead-end Battle earlier." He clinched his fist and looked into the sky, gritting his teeth together. "I wasn't thinking...I let my pride get ahead of me, and brought you all down because of it."

The normal-type snuggled up next to him, turning her back up against his feet. "I know not everything will go smoothly. I still have a lot to learn. We all still have a lot to learn." He looked at the female non-human companion. "But we'll get there. I don't care how much responsibility I have to take on because of the knowledge. Knowledge is freedom, and Knowledge is power. Orwell's dystopian state can go screw itself."

A bright light suddenly poured through the windows, snapping his attention back to the outside. He quickly stood up, unsure of what to expect. It wasn't lightning, which was little more then a single quick flash. This was quite prolonged.

"Oh my...god..."

The sky seemingly flooded with light as electric bolts scattered across the expanse of the heavens. Eon leaped up onto Takuya's shoulders, then adjusted onto his back and neck, looking at the light show. The room they were in was covered by a brief shadow, and the two of them stared as they saw one of Kanto's legendary birds fly across the expanse, it's wingspan looking to be at least a city block, it's cry complimenting the electrifying sound of the bolts and the steady 'WOOMPH-WOOMPH!' of it's wings.

The two of them stared at the sight for some time until Zapdos left their line of sight. It left the sky rolling with thunder as dark rainclouds began to crash back into each other, rain once again pouring onto the earth. Takuya finally closed his mouth, still awestruck at this sight.

"Vee!"

"I wish I had my GoPro going. No one will believe me when I tell them I saw one of Kanto's legendaries in the night sky..." His hand reached over him and rubbed Eon's back and top of her head. "I don't know what others might say, but I'd say we were just blessed with good fortune there." He sat down, still starring out the window despite the calming of the cloudy night sky and heavy rain. "Maybe good fortune for the long run.."


	12. The Next Level of Communication

"Stop looking at the world through your camera lens already. We're almost out of this place."

"This place is going to be completely remodeled in a few days. We should take some evidence for historians to use and as a historical record of what this place used to be like."

Kris groaned in agony, grabbing one of the upward bends in her hair and toying with it in frustration. "We could already be in Lavender Town by now."

Takuya shut the camera up as he stepped out, the mid-morning sunlight raising the temperature, and subsequently, the humidity with the recent rain. He reached around his back, trying to grab one a zipper on one of the compartments on his pack. "Eon, this wouldn't be so hard if you weren't laying on my neck."

The brown-and-white furred pokemon cooed, apparently half-asleep while laying on her trainer's neck, bag, and head.

"Figures. I'll just hold onto the camrea then. We're bound to run into SOME kind of trainers to battle."

The two walked southward from the factory for some time, until they came across a large body of water. "This will be interesting. These waters are WAAAAY to strong for me to swim against."

"You don't have a surfing pokemon..." Kris facepalmed hard. "Not boyfriend material, I don't want to drag some kid along with me." She whispered to herself.

"You say something?"

"Wani-Wani, I need you for a second."

She tossed a pokeball into the air, kicking it as it began plummeting down to earth. The impact of her foot on the side of the sphere unleashed it's contents into the world. A blue crocodilian creature began chattering loudly, overflowing with energy, leaving Takuya to raise his eyebrow in shock. The Totodile stood several feet away from the duo, leaping into the air and being very boisterous with a scratchy voice.

"Wani-Wani, can you get me across this place? Please?" She clasped her hands together and stuck her bottom lip out at the small water-type, who turned around and leapt into the water, easily resisting the flow it had. "Good job! Let me climb on boy!"

Takuya watched as the girl jumped into the water. "Our paths split here Kanto boy, unless you find some way of getting across this expanse." The male watched the female as she slowly swam away. He looked over his shoulder at the Eevee, or more specifically, her bushy tail as it curled over his shoulder.

"I'll see what I can do!" He shouted back across. "See you in Lavender Town!"

Kris rolled her eyes in the distance. "Cute guy. But nooo potential in fathering myself or my career. I'm going to probably be out of that city before he even gets halfway there."

* * *

Takuya shuffled his feet as he stepped into Lavender Town, the afternoon sun beating down on him. "Made it. I bet that she's waiting somewhere around here." His main team of four all stood beside him, each of them looking considerably fresher then their trainer. All four of them looked at the sprawling city landscape with an amazed look in their eyes. While Takuya would be similarly amazed if it was any other situation, his tired body took a lot of the edge off of his reactions. Every building was painted some shade of purple, most of them light and sun-bleached purple, but purple none the less.

"I need to invest in hiking boots, these shoes aren't cutting it, and I don't want to have to buy a new pair every new town I walk into." He walked toward the center of the town. "I'll likely find Kris at the center."

Speaking of the female, she stepped out of the Pokecenter just as he was walking up. "Oh...no...how did he do that?"

"Told ya I'd catch up." He looked like a mess. His shoes and the lowest section of his pants were stained with soil, sweat covered his shirt and had even began to stain his jacket. The bandanna he had been wearing around his forhead was coated in sweat, and he seemed to have gained a light gash on his left hand.

"How did you do that?"

"While learning Chung Doe Kwan, I was told by my instructor that as long as I kept a sound mind with a sound body, I should be able to do any challenge. He's right. Hiking over those small mountains...or more like around them, wasn't quite as hard as I thought it was." A yawn emanated from his mouth. "Just drained me of my energy."

"I see..." She groaned, looking off to the side. "I guess this is where we-"

"Hey! Aren't you that guy?"

Takuya turned his head in a lop-sided fashion to a large 20-something male as he ran up. "I?"

"Yeah! That Serizawa guy, the one who runs that pokemon vlog! My WHOLE family and almost all my co-workers tune into it, curious on your next piece of adventure!" The large man was acting like a fan of a pop-singer in their tween years.

Kris' lower jaw would have come unhinged and hit the floor if it physics would allow it. This random 'average joe', who looked to work in some sort of construction considering the yellow hard-hat on his head and the numerous tools strapped around his suspenders, had just leaked vital information to her

"Thanks, I guess. Glad you enjoy what I put out there." The teen felt really awkward now. He never expected to be greeted in public by a follower. Let alone someone who seemed THIS excited about his travels thus far.

"Can we battle!? I'd love to show up on your vlog!"

Takuya looked at his four pokemon, all perfectly ready for a battle. They all looked a lot more ready to battle then he felt after the ridiculous quick-hike he had made.

"Why the hell not. I can sleep when I'm dead." The teen chuckled. "Let me get my camera." He reached around toward the side-compartment of his pack, pulling the video camera out once more. "What's the bet?"

"Bet?" The fan laughed. "I don't battle for bets, only for recreation. I hope you understand that, but I can't afford to lose what paycheck I do get on someone else bringing over-powered pokemon."

Hand ran through the male's black hair, and he sighed. "I'll make an exception, for a fan. This won't be common service."

The large man took a step back, giving the camera a thumbs up before reaching into his jacket and pulling out two pokeballs. "Better get ready then! We're doing a two-on-two battle in this case!"

"Heh. I'm always ready for something new. Eon, Ninko, you two are up!" While his two females leapt at the chance to battle, the two electric types put a distance between themselves and the soon-to-be battlefield that was out-front of the Pokecenter. Jupiter walked under the eaves of the center, laying down as he tried to get some reprieve from the humidity and the blazing sunlight. Perkunas took a similar spot next to the fellow electric type, only to earn a snarl from the Eevelution as the Joleon affirmed his position in that section of the shade, forcing the Pikachu to move on.

Kris walked under the eaves of the center, sitting down in one of the chairs they had outside, trying to process what was going on. The Kanto kid she had pretty much blown off earlier, was actually an internet star? Not just that, he must be pretty decently sized if he was having fans come up and approach him. Hell, he handled it professionally and friendly, this must have been happening for years. "I'll deal with his weaknesses later. This could be a HUGE boost, and put me on the map, on the road to being a Pokestar!"

"Machamp, Geodude! I choose you two!"

"Ninko, Use your Drought under this sunlight and light up the Four-armed one with Ember! Eon, blind the Geodude with a sand attack and follow up with a quick attack!"

"Machamp, Low-Kick Karate-Chop combination! Geodude, Curl up and defend against it, try to keep your eyes shielded!"

With a technique similar to what had occurred the day before, the lighting in the center of Lavender Town became extremely bright, encouraging people indoors and out to step outside as they observed the situation. The shiny Vulpix took her weather advantage and ran with it, spitting fire at her opponent in an effort to weaken him. It made contact, but as the flames began to coat the four-armed fighter, it leaped out, kicking the fire-type under the jaw. As she was knocked into the air, he spun around, swinging his 'extra' set of arms around and chopping at her with the side of his hands, sending her flying through the air and rolling across the ground shortly afterwards. She slowly stood back up, growling in frustration.

Eon's sand attack was successful also, blinding the floating ground/rock type. As the Geodude began to rush forward, throwing punches in a fit of rage, the Eevee leaped into the air, slamming into the flying pokemon several times before forcing him to drop onto the ground, slightly disoriented.

"Geodude, it's set you up for a perfect Rock throw! Hit her hard and fast with a Seismic Toss Machamp!"

"Eon, DODGE and quick attack! Ninko, Circle around and Ember it ag-Ooh!" Takuya cringed as the golden kitsune was tossed across the makeshift battlefield, slamming into the ground with a sickening thud and a rising cloud of subsequent dust. The male lowered the camera from his eye level a bit, looking straight at the location where his fire-type came to a stop. "Ninko, are you alright? Ninko!? NINKO!" He began to take off toward the dispersing dust, only to stop about half-way there. The golden vulpix stood there, it's tails spinning around and chest heaving. "Thank Christ." Her chest heaved outward, and blew another stream of flame at her opponent. This was was considerably more effective, sending the fighting type into a fit as it tired to escape the fires. "Tail Whip, quickly!" At this point, he remembered the camera, re-focusing it to center on the battle in the 'background' between his Eevee and the Geodude.

Eon somersaulted to the side of the rock type pokemon, who reached into the quickly-forming pit and chucked another large stone at the normal-type. It flew over her head as she slid on her stomach toward the opponent, just within striking range. Before the Geodude could attempt to block, or even harden according to the commands of it's master, he was set on by the brown-and-white furred creature, who relentlessly slammed her body into him multiple times. It didn't take long for the Geodude to stop putting up a fight, taken out by the series of quick attacks and it's earlier crash onto the ground.

Kris shifted her attention from the ending skirmish between the Eevee and the Geodude back to the conclusion of the other half of the battle. Takuya's prized shiny jumped roughly chest-high to it's opponent, and spun rapidly in the air, it's 6 tails all banging on the exterior of the Fighting-type. The muscular pokemon stumbled back, falling to it's knees in pain. She looked at the fellow teenager she had 'befriended' his chest heaving while he salivated at the corners of his mouth, putting all other concerns and cares aside in favor of the battle at hand. Her attention was dragged away as Perkunas leapt up onto her lap, watching the battle from a separate vantage point. "Is he always this intense in a battle?"

"Pika..."

"There's no need to go any further!" The man shouted. "You got it in the bag! Lay off of Machamp!"

"If you say so, but you had the upper hand in that half of the battle almost the whole time!" Takuya shouted back across the battlefield. "Ninko, stand down!" The golden fox-like pokemon stopped, looking at it's trainer. The machamp collapsed shortly afterwords, forcing the trainer to recall his two fighters. "Great job girls! It was a well-earned victory!"

The normal and fire types ran toward their trainer, both leaping onto him and knocking him onto his back with the sheer force. "Thanks, thanks. But remember this was a team effort."

Kris stood up suddenly, having trouble believing what she saw transpiring in front of her, which sent Perkunas sliding off of her lap and onto the floor. While still atop of trainer, the Eevee looked to be swelling with a white light. "It's evolving!" Sure enough, even without the use of any evolutionary stone, the Eevee was advancing to it's next stage. The light became bright enough that Takuya again had to shield his eyes for a second before looking back at his other 'starter'.

"Oh wow..."

Perfectly fitting in with the purple hues that covered the houses and buildings within Lavender Town, aside from the Pokemon Tower itself, Eon's short purple fur matched it's type perfectly. "Espy..."

"That's an Espeon!" The defeated man shouted, sounding more surprised then anything else.

Ninko stepped off of Takuya's arm, moving to the side and staring at it's rival. The new Eeveelution looked back at it, and stared harshly with it's dark blue eyes, the orb on it's forehead glowing as a warning. This motivated the shiny to give more ground then it has already acquiesced. After forcing the fire-type to move some distance away, the newly evolved Espeon began rubbing it's head and neck against it's trainer, likely to signify it's happiness. "I guess that question has been answered." Takuya finally remarked as his new psychic type continued to expression her affection.

Without further warning, her head raised up, as she looked right down onto her trainer. "What?"

_Thank you, for letting nature take it's course._

"Eon! You...you can talk..." Right afterwords Takuya would have slapped himself under more normal circumstances. Psychic types were known for communicating with humans and other pokemon. His shock came more from the sudden inclusion of a female voice in his head, one that was soft and soothing to 'hear' while having some form of strength behind it. "Your welcome...?"

"What's going on over there?" The burly man asked, adjusting his hard-hat.

"I think it's talking to him psychically." Kris spoke up as she walked closer to the scene. "Most psychic types bond as quickly as they can with trainers that they trust."

"And who might you be?"

"I'm Kris. He's probably not introduced me online yet, but I'm his new girlfriend." The teal-haired female shook the larger man's hand in respectful greetings.

"Ah. My name is Jim. He sure landed a beaut in you then, hasn't he?"

_I'm glad I was able to come to this form, so I can communicate with you._

"Yes...it's just going to be difficult for me to learn to have another voice in my head..."

_I won't always be in your head, Takuya Serizawa. We'll talk later. This is all brand new to me, and it's making me feel very...tired._

Takuya looked over to the other side, where his camera had been knocked out of his hand again. Eon finally got off of him, walking over to his side like nothing had transpired. The male shook his head a bit, trying to fully process what just occurred. "Takuya, are you still with us?"

He took a few seconds to respond while sitting up and grabbing his camera, pressing the necessary buttons to get it to stop recording. "I'm still here. Just...that was unexpected." Kris and Jim lend their hands to pull him up to his feet. "Ok, next time, I need to not let my Pokemon floor me while I'm still wearing my pack. It doesn't do good things for your back..."

"Don't worry. A good night's rest with your woman, and it will all be fine!" Jim slammed his hand against Takuya's back with a considerable amount of force, letting a sharp 'crack' out of the vertebrae and a gasp from the teen. "Well, I've got to get back to working on the tower. That radio-station is going to start broadcasting within the week and I don't want their to be any loose wires or unmarked graves left in that thing. Farewell Takuya, and give your lady a kiss for me!"

Takuya, Kris, and Eon watched the man as he began to head in the direction of the large tower within the city. "My lady? What the heck is he talking about?"

"I don't care. Let's go in and reserve a room for the night."

Takuya looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "I thought you would be leaving."

"Why?"

"Didn't we agree that we'd head our separate ways after we got to Lavender Town? You were going to show me about that poke-transfer thing so I can drop off the excess pokemon, and that was it."

Kris bit her lip. If she was going to have any chance at getting famous, she needed to jump onto this kid's coat-tails, NOW! "I enjoyed your company."

"Really?"

"Really."

The male smiled a bit. "That's...great to hear! I enjoyed having someone to talk to also! Does this mean we'll be traveling together a little longer?"

"Oh yeah." Kris remarked as she walked into the Pokecenter again. "We are going to be traveling together ALOT longer then I originally planned."

* * *

"It's a strange experience, having a psychic type converse with you inside your head. Imagine having someone else's voice just resound within your mind like how a portion of a song loops within your mind. The sensation is kind of like that, only not annoying or endless." Takuya sighed as he looked at the camera, leaning back in the chair. "That's all for today's rundown, from Cerulean to Lavender Town. Next stop I'll make will probably be Saffron city. I would have already been there, but the path from Cerulean to Saffron was closed." The male leaned over the distance and ended the recording session by hitting 'cancel' on the computer, the webcam ending it's recording. After several other assorted edits, he leaned back in the chair, watching as the 'saving' bar slowly morphed into a blue 'saved' bar.

He spun the chair around, looking at the room again. Kris spent a lot more money then he ever would have bothered when it comes to getting a room. Even after offering to spend the money for her, she insisted on getting an expensive room with two different beds and a bathroom. "I'm not complaining though."

_Is something bothering you?_

Takuya jumped a bit from the mentally announced presence of his Espeon. She sat on his bed, staring at him with her deep dark blue eyes. "No. I was just pondering what Kris' intentions are. She seemed to just turn a corner all by herself."

_Like how she suddenly wants you beside her even thought she ditched you earlier this morning and seemed to not really care overall about you otherwise?_

"Something like that. I don't know. It just sort of itches at me." Takuya scratched his head. "At least I can get this bloody bandage and the stitches off tomorrow."

_Is it painful?_

"Not really. Just annoying."

_You don't have to verbally talk to converse with me. Think about what you want to say, and I can respond quicker._

Takuya looked at the Espeon with a bit of confusion. He was just about to remark something along the lines of 'Is it difficult to adjust to your new abilities' when she answered so suddenly if made him studder in shock.

_It's difficult. There is now so many new stimuli, I don't know what to do with it. I can feel the atmosphere as it is changing, I can feel your heartbeat and the heartbeat of the female over there._ She turned her head slightly to the side and looked at the female, who was sprawled out like a star underneath a pair of blankets despite the warm night. _Thought right now she is sleeping, so her thoughts are much more muddled and chaotic then they were earlier. I can even read Jupiter and Perkunas' thoughts._

Takuya looked at the fire fox that was curled up in one of the corners. His next question easily sprung to mind. _What about Ninko?_

_It's weird. I can't feel anything from her. As if she would expect people to be looking into her mind._

_I have a question. Why do you want me to think about my responses and not talk?_

The psychic type tilted her head, it's face still borderline expressionless and eyes still staring wide open. _It's much faster now. Furthermore, we don't think in words. Our thoughts are compromised of images, sounds, and feelings, so this is more raw. I can see every image and feel every feeling you have as it comes into existence within your mind. You're not exactly 'hearing' me either._

_I'm not?_ Takuya stopped leaning back in his chair, sitting straight up to look at Eon.

_No. I'm expressing my feelings and thoughts to you in the terms of sounds so it feels like a conversation. It's faster this way. I can focus on your mind and you can focus on what I send to you._

The male stood up, taking off his shirt and heading toward the bed. _It's going to be weird not having you on my neck, but rather, inside of my head._

_You'll get used to it...I think. I'm not even sure if I'm used to it. I doubt we could do this in battle, I'd have to split my focus between my techniques and the thoughts in your mind._

_I understand that. Can I ask you a question, before I do finally sleep? I desperately need sleep, hiking through that rock cave is not easy._

_Why not?_

_Why? Why did you choose to bond with a human, even as a young Eevee, knowing that we are a vicious species with members that would hurt you without a second thought. Why train under the member of a species that is divided amongst itself?_

The Espeon moved aside as Takuya collapsed, face first, onto the bed, his breathing muffled by the pillows. _I can't speak for other pokemon or other people. But you took time aside from yourself, and from Jupiter, who was at his weakest, to care for me. And it wasn't a duty to you. Even back then, you treated me like an equal...a young equal, but as someone that could actually think._

"That kind of explains it." Takuya said aloud, his voice muffled in the pillows. "Goodnight Eon. Knowing your new nature, we'll be up at the crack-of-dawn if I can help it."

_Thanks. I do look forward to what the morning sun will bring to me now, rather then just the logging of another new day._ She stood up, nuzzling her faze into the back of Takuya's head, before turning and curling up next to him. She laid with her back against his right side, her two-tipped tails draped over his legs while she formed a 'C' shape with the rest of her body, trying to get some sleep to rest her busy mind.


	13. Dirty Deals in the Dark

So for all of you that wanted to just read pure erotica, here is your erotica for you. Happy? At least it's not totally plotless...I think.

Skip this chapter if you feel it holds no true bearing on the story.

* * *

Kris rolled onto her back underneath the covers. She slowly came back to reality, unsure of her current location. "Ceiling? Oh yeah, I'm in the Lavender Town Pokecenter..." With some effort from her tired body, she sat up, shaking her head and feeling her hair, the sections which would normally jut out violently were now pressed flat against her shoulders and a bit straighter. "Time?" She turned her head to look at the clock, which read only 13 minutes after Two. In the morning. Through the blinds on the side of the room she could see rays of 'moonlight' spread across the floor.

"Two in the morning? I can't sleep if my life depend on it." She groaned, throwing back the covers and setting her feet on the ground in between her bed and Takuya's. She briefly considered jumping on the computer in the room, but as she turned and threw a glance at it, she noticed a small blue bar that was about 70 percent filled up in the center of the screen, moving very slowly. "I don't want to disturb that. Especially if he's updating his online vlog." The joints in her knees and hips softly cracked as she stood up, putting her arms behind her and stretching. After several seconds of that, she traipsed off to the restroom, dealing with midnight business.

Stepping out several minutes later, her blue eyes caught the sleeping male in the distance. The edges of the light from the bathroom hit the side of his bed, where he rested on his stomach, one hand under the pillow while his other vanished somewhere else beneath the cover that concealed his body below his shoulders, his legs curled up at what was likely an awkward angle. "...if I'm to be his 'girlfriend', I need to make an impression. A BIG impression." She smiled devilishly. "I've not known one man to turn down this girl after they've banged me...ok, there was Silver, but he doesn't count. Stupid hothead."

She took several steps up toward the sleeping male, grabbing the T-shirt she had on and tossing it back onto her bed, leaving her clad only in her black sports-bra and white panties. "Come to..."

_What are you doing?_

The Johto trainer stumbled back in surprise as the Espeon craned it's neck up, it's dark eyes making direct contact with her.

"You can talk wit-?"

_Yes. Now what are you doing?_

"So you guys DO talk to people other then your trainers."

_ANSWER ME!_

The mental shout was more then enough to make Kris jump back in fear, the psychic's impression so loud that she stumbled backwards onto her own bed, falling onto her rear. "I...I was just going to..."

_I see now. You were going to take advantage of his sexuality just to improve yourself in the eyes of others!_

"Eh-eh-Iyiyi..."

Eon stood up onto all fours, not once breaking her eye-contact. _Now I understand why you switched your attitude toward him so quickly. Clever, but pathetic all the same. I can't stan-_

"Wait!"

The orb in the center of Eon's forehead dimmed back to it's normal color. "What's wrong if it ends up furthering myself? If it ends up benefiting him and making him happy also, is it still bad? He trains with you to further himself, and you get the benefits of it! Why can't I do something similar?"

There was silence on the physical and mental planes for a while. It came as a surprise to the human female as the Espeon jumped off the bed, slinking over to one of the far-corners of the room. The teal-haired female's eyes followed the Eeveloution across the room, unsure of what this meant.

_Go ahead_

"What?"

_Go ahead and do what you wish. But if I find out that you, in any way, end up harming him or holding him back, I will not hesitate to hurt you._

The psychic type curled up and fell asleep next to the locked door, her eyes wide open and staring at the female.

"I don't like having voyeurs."

_I'm not exactly going to walk out and leave you two be. Pretend that I'm not here if it's that bad for you._

Kris turned her back to the pokemon, sighing in frustration as she tried to put that experience out of her head and focus back on her plan. She slowly crawled onto the bed, making sure the mattress' shifting to accommodate her weight wouldn't wake him. "Heavy sleeper much?" She remarked, slinging her left arm and leg over his body, now leaving her positioned right over him, looking right down on his face which was turned to the side. She shot one more glance at the Espeon across the room, which merely sat there, looking at her with the same stare as she always had. "Ignore her...Ignore her..." With that, she forced herself to lean downward toward him.

Takuya's eyes shot open and he began to turn his body quickly at the feeling of something on his left cheek. As he did so, his mouth was met with a pair of soft, feminine lips. He would normally have asked aloud what was going on, but having your primary tool for verbal communication covered with someone else's mouth made that difficult.

Kris pulled back, looking at the male as he looked at her with sleep-laden eyes. "Kris?"

"Shut up and let me do the work." She whispered at him, leaning down again and kissing him one more time, a bit shorter in duration yet more firmly. "...boyfriend." Came an unexpected conclusion to her sentence after separating again.

"I don't recall ever...aaaahhhhh." Kris bit down on the male's neck, gently sucking on the left side while looking up at the old covering he still had over the wound. Curiosity got the better of her, and she reached up and yanked it off, exposing some skin that was soft to look at, not to mention touch, and a somewhat faint line of pure-white contrasting his whiter-then-average skin. More interesting to her was the four small bands of thread that could be seen arcing over the white-streak on his head.

"Stitches huh? Trying to look like a badboy?"

"I had no idea you would...ahhhh" She bit down once more on him, this time with only her front teeth on the uppermost section of his ear. Trying to garner an extra-bit of reaction from him, she slid her hand beneath the solitary blanket he had thrown atop of himself, dragging it down his chest with her weather-hardened nails scratching against the surface of his skin.

"Kris...ahh...what are you doing?"

"Just enjoy the ride." She laid one more kiss atop of his forehead, before moving her entire body off of him and grabbing the blanket, tossing it aside and off of the bed. Quickly, almost effortlessly, her body dropped to rest beside his, her left leg draped across his own legs while the corresponding arm wandered across his lightly, yet firmly, muscled arm. Her lips gently ran across his cheek, planting light kisses in a downward direction until they reached his shoulders, at which point she used her other hand to focus on running through his thick hair.

Having subdued him and holding him well in place, she shifted her body once more, now laying atop of him, only with her head laying on the center of his chest. His right hand bent and grabbed her left with some force, and she graciously accepted the grip, only she pushed back with more force to pin that to the bed once more. Her other hand gripped his hair, pulling his head up so he could get a good look at her.

Despite the unpleasant feeling of his hair getting yanked, Takuya was utterly pulled in by what was going on, unable to even comprehend how or why this happened, solely captivated by what he was feeling and seeing. His teal-haired companion moved her body downward, her tongue hanging out of her mouth and dragging right down the center of his chest. Abruptly, her head went sideways, setting her mouth in place just before she bit down over where his right nipple was, teething at the acutely sensitive spot. In pleasured frustration he gritted his teeth as she orally assaulted him.

Kris looked up at his head, where she could see a clenched face that was signature of a strong-willed and inexperienced men...she guessed. It's not like she laid with every single guy she came across. Ready to upshift again, she released his hand and hair to push herself up onto all fours, looking at the male's face as she got right into it. He started to say something again, but as he leaned up to do she covered his mouth with her lips one last time, this one longer and more intimate then before, her tongue coasting into his mouth and jockying for supremacy within his own oral cavern.

He broke away this time, gasping for breath. His mind was fully awake now but awash with unfamiliar otherworldly excitement and pleasure. "Why are you doing this?"

Her toothy grin didn't exactly make him feel at ease, even though what she said did 'excite' him more on a subconscious level. "Lets just say that this is return for the favor from before." With that, feminine hands grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him back while pulling him up, resting his head and upper back against the wall at a 40 or so degree angle. His gaze left her face and traveled down her body as she sat back, her legs folded under her with one on each side of his knees. An unknown amount of sexual frustration was teased even father as she reached up, grabbing the undersides of her tight sports-bra and yanking it upward, the garment turning inside-out as it went over her head and 'vanished' into a separate section of the room.

Her blue eyes stared right back at his own, the cunning intent behind hers not getting picked up by the hazed-over wandering blue eyes as they gazed at her moderate bust. Wanting to tease just a bit, she crunched her shoulders together and forward, the movement making her feminine orbs push together in a taunting fashion. His eyes locked on her chest, making it look more gifted then it actually was. That wasn't the sole goal of that movement, as it allowed both of her hands to grasp the rising spot under his jeans, the belt that would normally have been on it already laying aside while it was unbuttoned, leaving what would be his masculine organ unburdened by any force. Her fingers delicately danced around the clothed tip, smiling with a strange mix of mock-innocence and a domineering grin right back at him as he reached for her wrists. Before he could make the catch she pulled away, sliding off of him completely and leaving his hands to land on the sides of his waist.

Kris grabbed the sides of her breasts, kneading them to give her hands something to do as she continued to embrace his phallus with her mouth, coaxing a solid moan from the male as he relished in the situation. She shifted her body just a tick more, lowering herself so the peak of his physical masculinity was in the back of her throat. Slowly, just to antagonize him, she pulled up one more time, her tongue uncurling out of her mouth and circling the organ's head.

Takuya grabbed the woman by her hair, the sections that had been separated and pulled into V-like handlebars firmly held in his grasp. His more animalistic side had been called forth, something that could only be compared to how he would fight. Driven by sexual aggression, he yanked her head down ontop of his sexual tool, grunting as began to take aggressive control of the situation.

Encouraged by his own world-less yet forceful command, she jammed the length into her mouth once again. She briefly thanked Arceus for a controllable girth allowing her to breath as she continued her oral administration. There was a few twitches from the organ she focused her attention on, much like a warning signal before a launch. So she pulled back, reverting to caressing him with her tongue once more, while pushing her breasts harder against him.

The male's mind went utterly blank for some undetermined amount of time, unable to do anything but tense up as he hit the peak of sexual excitement, followed by a relaxing tingling feeling as it spread through his body, originating from his nether regions. For once, he could actually say he felt really good about everything, not caring about anything else as he relished in a post-orgasmic bliss.

"Satisfied?"

Still leaning back at a strange angle, he turned his head down and looked at the female atop of him. The weather-beaten feminine hands held his slowly deflating masculinity, her face covered with a semi-translucent white substance that he could only assume came from his ejaculation. "Yes." Was his response, his voice sounding weaker and dryer then normal.

"Good to hear. But done leave me unsatisfied big boy!" Finally getting out of the crouched position she had taken over his reproductive organs, she stood up on the bed, winking at him with a smile on her cum-coated face.

Eon looked up from her resting position again, briefly observing the pair as they continued their mature interactions. _I fail to see how this would actually win him over to letting her stay with him long-term._ She shifted just a bit, allowing her to resume her self-cleansing of her own front paws, still keeping the pair in her sight as the human female removed her last article of clothing and squatted down over the male's head. _Is mating like this supposed to bring a special bond and trust between humans? I'm quite positive they're not doing it for reproductive purposes._

The smell of her sex overwhelmed the male, and with it positioned perfectly over his head, it made his next move easy to predict. He leaned his head forward and kissed it, setting his lips right upon the Clitoral hood and gently caressing it with his lips. She shuddered a bit, and he moved just a tick lower, his lips now surrounding her exposed clitoris. This encouraged a different reaction, a verbal 'Ooh!' from her. Taking this as a signal to focus his attention here, he closed his lips around this section of her vaginal anatomy once more. Going a step further, he opened his mouth wide, running the tip of his tongue over the clitoral bulb until he closed his mouth upon it again, sucking upon it to provide a new type of stimulation.

Kris' eyes shot wide. She had assumed that his experience was minimal considering his rapid ejaculation earlier, but his centered and focus attacks on her clit led her to think otherwise. Trying to control herself, she took a slow and deep breath, wanting to stay on-top of the situation without loosing her mind. From what she could feel, he seemed to be intent on bringing to a quick orgasm from sheer clitoral stimulation, another burst of sexual pleasure flowing through her nerves and mind as he proceeded to suck on her clitoral bulb.

"Lower...please." She meekly called out, shifting her lower body up so he could get access her primary entry point, hoping to drag out her pleasure as long as she could without climaxing. He willingly complied, moving his tongue across what would be her minor labia, pushing it open as far as he could before crudely jamming his tongue inside her vagina. That wasn't what she wanted...hoping for more of a gradual slide in to compliment the calm pace he had earlier, but it was sexual attention, and she'd take it.

For the first time, Takuya actually focused on the taste rather then the actions that his administrations were bringing. While the natural lubricants that covered the skin weren't comparable to anything else in taste, they were pleasantly acidic. Nothing like the extremes of HCL but much more tart then diluted lemon juice. He internally smiled, knowing how he always craved drinks that fell in that gap, something that knew it was acidic and wasn't confused as to it's pH identity. In many ways, it made this perfect, encouraging him to push his oral extension in deeper within her to get more of the ichorous fluid from the source. Briefly he brought his attention back onto her reactions, and hoping to get at least a bit more signs of pleasure from her, he slid his tongue up and down the valley between her vaginal lips, going all the way up to her special 'button' again before going all the way down to the skin bridge between her anus and vaginal entryway.

She rolled her hips just a bit, trying to take the edge off of the rising excitement that the male had pushed onto her. This only succeeded in sparking his interest into new heights, now placing his entire mouth over her vaginal region and sucking on it with the utmost power he could apply. The only added thing he would need to do would be to start chewing on her, and he would be putting a literal definition to the term 'eating out her pussy'. "Arceus...oh Arceus Danm it..." She leaned forward, her head banging against the wall as she brought one arm up over her head, providing extra support for herself. With her other hand, she reached down and yanked at his head, desiring more of the tortuous pleasure he was providing. Her left hand ran through his thick black-hair, the muted light from the various heavenly bodies giving his hair a bit of a shiny dark-blue look to it. "Aaaahhhh." Again he did something, hard to determine what, to spike her pleasure, and she grabbed his hair harder then before, pulling at it and dragging his entire face up into her sexual region.

That flipped the male's switch, breaking what had been his calm and obedient demeanor thus far. Rather then just be controlled by the female's whims and yanks, he went beyond the pull. Putting both hands solidly on the mattress below them, he violently shot up, the female spilling off of his face and landing on her back as he reared from his laying position until he was standing on his knees, looking down at her. He gazed at her with a wanton and lustful stare, before collapsing right atop of her, his face biting roughly at her neck.

"Not...there." She hoarsely called out, desperately hoping he would hear her warning and avoid her most sensitive spot. He did listen, and shifted downward, aggressively biting down on her left shoulder. In pain she whimpered rather then screamed, her entire body tensing up. The next thing she felt brought a mixed reaction. It was the blatant prodding of his member on her lubricated sexual lips. All it brought was a mixture of desire for the insertion and a fear. A fear that she wouldn't be able to control it herself and lose sight of her goal..

Regardless of whatever she would have gone with, he pressed forward, still teething her shoulder, and rammed his length against her labia. She clenched her eyes, not only did he miss her entryway, the overly-aggressive male slammed hard enough to bring a bit of pain. He pulled back and blindly tried again, hitting her opening but not getting through. The third time was the charm though, and her hands flew over his back as he hit her entrance and pushed the majority of his length in with no care for size-restraints.

"Takuya...Control...yourself."

"NO!" He shouted in her ear, as if trying to break the female's eardrums. It was his way now, and she would have to forcefully take it from him.

Eon's head shot up. She had been with Takuya for a long time, but never before had he taken such a violently commanding tone. In a rush she broke out of her half-lidded daze, standing up and weighing the options. The first thought was to rush over and break the session, which looked to be turning violent...until she stopped. The female put herself in this place, and while this risk wasn't exactly expected, it was possible and it she should have to be the one to get out of it. _After all, you forced yourself onto him, let him see how much you like it when he forces himself onto you._ Calmly she sit back down, observing the duo.

Kris' eyes rolled in her head, hoping and trying to get over the careless pleasure she was experiencing from her sexual core and the abnormal mixture of pain and pleasure from her neck and shoulders as her companion continued to teeth on her, ranging from a quick and powerful nibble to long and agonizing chomps. Her skin was likely to be cut and bleeding in several ways if he didn't cease and desist shortly. The teal-haired woman focused hard on her arms, torquing them and placing her palms on the mattress under her. She tried pushing up, but timed it wrong and ended up meeting with another one of his powerful downward thrusts, nailing her back to the bed. "Nnnghhhh!" She timed a push this time as he was sliding out of her, and with this she was able to push herself upwards, her momentum carrying the both of them into an awkward upward position, pulling him off of her neck and shoulders.

Takuya roughly kissed her back, sliding his penis up into her as roughly as he could, trying to destabilize her in the new contest for dominance. Despite putting as much force he could against her, she countered with an equal amount of power, fusing her hands into his own and pushing back. They separated for a second, and he once more pushed up into her body to keep her off of him during the time needed to regain vital oxygen.

Kris let go of his hand, and smacked him in the right side of his head as hard as she could, destabilizing him and pushing him onto his back once more. "You...-heave- wanna play rough? Huh!?" IN a stunning change from the methodical pace she had been setting in the foreplay, she violently jammed her left hand into his hair, forcing his head back and pushing the back of his skull into the mattress. Her other hand was planted on the wall in front of her as she pulled up as far as she could without loosing his thick masculinity, only to ram her femininity down ontop of it as roughly as she possibly could. He bucked his hips right back into her, the upward motion clashing with her downward one. Her upper body slouched forward a bit, 'hanging' over him as she raised her midsection up one more time, and brought it slamming into him just as he slammed up again.

Not content with just being ridden, but unable to fight back for his own stake in dominance due to her firm grip on his head, he threw his hands up to the sides of her ribcage, grabbing her and pulling her down. While she didn't fall down, her support on the wall ensured that, she did slide a considerable amount. Ramming his phallus into her one more time, she bucked forward and slightly downward, virtually reversing the position they had been in mere moments earlier.

She bit her lip as he continued to push up into her at her lowest point, his compromisation of tactics in favor of power and force were paying off well for her at this point. Not only was she enjoying one of the best sessions she was able to recall, he would likely tire soon, and she would be left to toy with his exhausted body later. Now if only he would stop vice-gripping her sides!

His eyelids blinked rapidly, trying to focus on the female's swaying breasts as she was riding him to what would be a powerful climax. His grip weakened, followed by the hands sliding off of her side while his thoughts were clouded over by only the need to thrust. Almost like he came to a stop at several hundred G's, Takuya's body stiffened, his vision blanking out while his masculinity spurted it's load up into the female, completing it's designed job. Through his white-haze of an orgasm, he could faintly hear her moan and grumbled something as the female stopped moving for a time.

The thick warm liquid pulsed upwards into her inner regions, letting her feel his natural gift to her body. "Pathetic. I thought you would last longer then that..." Kris pushed herself back up, ceasing her movements for a time so she could re-position herself as the last of the semen shot into her body. As the male continued to pant after his powerful second ejaculation, the teal-haired female merely went back to rolling her hips the best she could with a half-deflated organ in her vaginal grip. "I've not been satisfied...yet."

After several agonizing moments, the motions picked back up again. In comparison to his otherwise exhausted-body, she was able to get his penis hardened one last time and suitable for a proper riding. While Takuya was still wiped out by the sexual onslaught from earlier, and thus unable to counter-thrust upwards, Kris gladly took this moment to seize control once more and begin riding him at her own pace. It left her content and satisfied, hoping that it would give her a psychological advantage over him by outlasting him, and putting him on a 'leash'.

_She did get herself out of that situation..._ Eon sat back down, readying to sleep once more. _I still doubt it will change anything. If she's hoping to push him around, it'll likely take more then that. He's been pushing around criminals for over a week now._ The Eeveloution took her eyes off the spectacle and rested her head on her paw, looking across the room blankly. Or, at least it was blankly until she saw the shiny Vuplix. The firefox glared at the female who was 'dancing' atop of it's trainer, with what seemed to be a mixture of rage and...jealously? Eon concentrated her physic energy as hard as she could, sending a message across the room to the rare fire-type with the intention of it breaking it's mental walls. _It was his choice to allow this. You do not own him, and neither do I, or that girl._ The fire-type seemed to snap out of it's glare in a startled fashion, looking at the evolved psychic type with a shocked look. The Espeon merely waved it's forked tail in the air.

"Oh...Finally..." Kris groaned, kneading her breasts in her hands while trying to keep a steady beat. She threw one of her hands to her vagina, letting it gently rub her clitoral nerves as she continue to ride him. Her speed increase went from a gradual pickup to an exponential pace, the bed once again rocking as she took a stare down at the male, who looked back with tired, yet still lustful eyes. "Do...you have anything left? Let's -gasp- see it then!"

The male raised his tired hands up, one of them grabbing the Johto trainer by the hip while the other reached farther and smacked her ass-cheek. "Oi!" Content with this, he smacked her several more times as she approached her own climax, dragging him with her.

"Kris...I'm..."

She didn't respond, the sounds coming out of her mouth now a mix between a call to Arceus and some sort of howl. Focusing fully on her own pleasure, she let go of her breasts and firmly planted her other hand on his sternum, the right one still rapidly fingering her clit. "Oh Arceus...Oh Arceus...Oh yes...yes...YESSSSSS!" Her scream reverberated off the walls of the room as the two voyeurs both folded their ears in displeasure from the echo within the room along side of her shrill scream. Femininity coiled tightly around his masculinity as she flew toward nirvana, her already soaked vagina now leaking juices at a much faster pace then before. Stars metaphorically flew in her eyes as she gazed blankly at the ceiling, her mouth agape from the powerful delivery.

Just as she slid off the peak of her high, she could feel another ejaculation rise into herself, much smaller then the previous two but thicker and hotter. It jolted her back into her state of pure bliss, a second orgasm forced out of her right after a long-awaited first one. Her body dropped, hands unable to break the fall as she collapsed on the male, his spent phallus dropping out of a filled cavern. Her head contently rested on the male's chest, their sweat-laden bodies spent of energy. "I...win..." She remarked to no one in particular, slowly reaching behind her and grabbing the lone cover that had been covering him earlier.

Throwing it over herself and her partner, she took a quick glance at him. He gazed into the distance blindly, not comprehending anything but the post-coital sensations, a blank-yet-satisfied look in his eyes as they slowly slid shut. "You'll do better..." Her remark was broken by an energy-drained yawn. "...in time." Her head turned to the side, where she made eye-contact with Eon, sitting like she had been earlier, the same gaze making her feel confident. If there was no conflict between her and his pokemon, then the biggest hurdle to fame was out of the way. A smug smile graced her features as she drifted into slumber, in a bed differently then what she had started the night out in.

* * *

This took over a week and a half to write, simply because I was so concerned about breaking the flow I started the scene out with. I'll get better, it's all a matter of getting back in the flow of writing something I've not tried in two years. Next chapter we'll be back to the normal progressing.


	14. Rethinking, Regression, and Rivalry

I deeply apologize for the long break before uploads. I had a major plotpoint start up in the chapter initially, however, I ended up dropping it as I was unsatisfied with it. Because of that, it left a large, gaping hole between the 1st and 3rd sections of this chapter. That with some form of dis-inspiration and other personal issues kept me from getting this chapter out as soon as I wanted to.

That said, here you go. It's the best I could produce, this upcoming arc I feel a bit uneasy about, I don't know how well it will be accepted. Feedback is still welcome, just like it was at the start of this story. Don't hesitate to comment.

* * *

Takuya blankly looked toward the window, where the dark western sky was slowly beginning to lighten up, slowly slinking out of the bed. "Did that even happen?" His feet led him toward the bathroom, and he idly looked down at Ninko as she looked around him. "What?"

"Wait!" Kris shouted at him as the bathroom door swung open. The male awkwardly stepped out as she bent over the edge of the shower, a damp towel wrapped tightly around her body and another one tightly holding all of her hair. The door swung shut again and Takuya leaned back against the dresser, running his hand through his hair until he felt the exposed stitches on his forhead. "I better get these out. It feels like they've sealed up."

_How are you feeling?_

The male jumped back a bit, his hands jumped jumping to his chest. "Sorry Eon. I'm not use to that yet."

_It's fine. How are you?_

"Eon...did that really happen last night?"

_Yes._

The male slid down beside his Espeon, stifling a weak yawn. "Now what? Was it just a fling, or is she looking for a relationship. With me, a Kanto Kid!" His head slouched forward lazily. "If it's a relationship, this is completely backward then how I would have approached it. You know, the traditional way."

"You can get in...handsome..." Kris walked out of the door, winking at the male as she held the towel firmly behind her back. Takuya looked over at Eon, who merely stared back, her black eyes complimenting the silence she responded with. "I'll be heading out and seeing if I can find anymore pokemon around here I've not already logged. I'll be back at the front door of this place in an hour, so be ready to go!" She tossed the towel to the side, rummaging through her own backpack (that was somehow much smaller then Takuya's) for her clothes.

"Now what?" He asked, turning and looking at Eon after forcing his gaze to break from her posterior.

The silence didn't solve any problems, and Takuya shuffled in. It wasn't until he was inside the bathroom that he realized he had not even bothered to put clothes on. "How the hell am I going to deal with this woman?" Stepping into the shower, he turned the hot water on, letting the scalding liquid cascade down his back and turn it red as he leaned up against the wall of the shower. "I need to think of something else, I can't draw conclusions. It just makes me an ass."

His mind wondered back to his route that he was taking. He had pit-stopped in Lavender Town, and the abandoned Factory, only because the route straight south to Saffron City had been closed off. He could only hope this trip had not been in vain, and that he could at least access the city from the east side. "She's a psychic type trainer, and a powerful one at that. I need to make sure that my hits are done fast and effective. Hopefully we do end up doing a lot of grinding leading up to that point. I know that Eon is a psychic type, so she'll have some natural resistance to the opposing attacks, but her own will be downgraded. I don't know about Jupiter, Ninko, or Perkunas."

He turned around, planting his back against the side of the shower while he fumbled for the soap. "It's funny. I used to fear psychic types when I was a kid, and now I have one that is going to talk to me almost daily now." A chuckle emanated from his throat. "Oh, the irony."

* * *

A burst of energy returned the blue dragon into the pokeball, leaving just the pair of remaining humans on the roof of the short skyscraper. "Good job Blue." The much older male remarked. "Once again, you've beaten the Battle Tower Challenge. You truly are a champion."

"Whatever." The male remarked, walking by the man and knocking him with his shoulder. "It's not like we didn't see this coming."

"I know that may be so, but your precision! Your finesse!" The Black Belt trainer stumbled toward the former champion. "You have no idea how amazing it is, for an average Battle Tower fighter like me to go up against a living legend such as yourself, who commands legends yourself. I could only dream of rea-"

"Then go do it." The male remarked, pulling on the collars of his shirt.

"What?"

"Get out of the tower, and take on the Badge and Elite Four challenge. If you could raise 5 more balanced pokemon like your Poliwrath there, the Elite Four would be almost nothing to you."

"Me? A lowly fighter? Not hardly. I couldn't hope to compete with the people who run our nation! It would be like fighting Arceus himself!"

The male curled his fists, and stomped aggressively. "They're not gods!" He spun on his heels, facing the man. "They are normal human beings, like you and me, all five of them!"

"Maybe to you, but to us lowly mortals."

"Look at me!" The teenager screamed. "Do I look like a legendary? Do I look like the fucking Llama God Arceus!? No! I'm just as human as you are, and so are they!" He shouted, pointing out toward the mainland. "They can be beaten, and by any normal human also. I'd kill to see someone else try to take them on again, someone who wasn't such an absolute coward!"

"But...but I'm just an average trainer..."

"You're hopeless." Blue commented, pulling the sphere out of his pocket and tossing it onto the ground beside him. "Open your eyes. The entire world is open for you and all the others that are watching us." With the powerful dragon beside him, the one-time champion slid his leg over jet-like creature's back. "Atio, let's head home." A sudden gust of wind, and the entire world blew by underneath the male, the rapid acceleration of the pokemon beneath him almost blowing him off of it's back.

"Maybe there has been in a break in the Team Rocket developments. That seems to be the only thing that presents a challenge nowadays." He commented to himself.

_Don't worry master. Surely you will find what you are looking for._

"It's lonely at the top, almost as lonely as being back in Pallet Town."

_But you have us._

"Yeah. And here we all are, wasting away at the top, waiting for someone to try and throw us down off of our pedestal." He commented back. The psychic conversation was dropped at that point, the trainer and his pokemon looking down at the water beneath them as they glided over it.

"What did you do, back on the island, alone?"

Silence was his only answer. "Nothing?"

_I guess you could say we were wasting away to, not having a purpose either._

"Is that why Atia took off on her own?" The gym leader didn't even give his 'ride' a chance to respond. "Some trainer I've been. I've not even gotten to do anything special for you except keep you out of the Public's eye."

_We've become more powerful_

"For no reason." He sighed again. "Maybe, just maybe, I'll run into a trainer that can actually make a challenge of some sort." The psychic dragon didn't even attempt to reason any farther with it's master.

* * *

"Archie, hit him with a Flamethrower!"

The bushy fire-dog blew a stream of flames onto the Oddish ,which began running in circles to avoid the fire until exhaustion kicked in. It collapsed to the ground, and the trainer through his hands to his head. "Oh, Noooo!"

"You got him boy!" Kris jumped in the air in glee. Thus far on their trip, there had not been a single issue of any sort. Her and Takuya had won three matches a piece on their way too Saffron City without as much as breaking a sweat, even though her Cubone, which she caught earlier that day at Lavender Town, took a not so pleasant burn to his sides.

"Here's the money I owe you. You must be one of those dedicated trainers from out of town."

Kris accepted the stack of cash and thumbed through it, made a little difficult by the furry dog licking her face. "What do you mean 'out of town'?"

"You are one of them! Tell me, what's it like to be on the road day in and day out?"

The Teal-haired female looked at the gardner with confused eyes. "Don't you have traveling trainers from your own town?"

"Not very many of our young ones take on the Elite Four Challenge."

"Why the hell...?"

"No one feels a need to leave the city, we have everything one could want and then some. Before the war, it had been the capital of Japan. We've not really lost our national influence since then."

"But surely some kid would want to go journeying, right? It's in our blood, to go on at least a short adventure."

"Not really. Tell me though, what is it like to be with such a wide variety of Pokemon?"

Putting the disappointment about the city's youth out of her head, Kris decided to let him in on her little journeys thus far. "It's great, you get to be real close to your pokemon and you learn so much about each other. If you're a real good trainers like me or my lover, you can get a lot of money to spend when you get to the big cities, stay in some nice rooms, get a good hot meal or the like. When you're out of the cities thought, it's a pleasantly rewarding walk that you can take at your own pace, where you can stop and rest at your own time. Oh, and the stars! Natee LOVES looking at the stars!"

"Natee?"

"He's a Natu, a real short bird local to the Johto region. Him, Little Miss, and Wani-Wani are probably the best members of my team outside of Archie here." She nuzzled with her fire-type a bit. "Then again, I've not spent enough time with my other pokemon yet to become proficient with them."

"Did you bother telling him how pleasant it is to get you ass kicked!?"

The two looked up at the masculine voice. "Oh no, I thought YOU were arrested by now." Kris remarked, standing up and placing a hand on her hip while groaning subconsciously.

"Miss me Krissy?" The red-headed male put his hand on his hip, mocking the stance Kris had just gotten in. "I can't say I miss you and your pathetic hair." Beside him a Quilava stood, flames wildly blazing in the sunlight.

"Hey! This hair is state of the art! Unlike your stupid mop!"

"Whatever. I actually had to thank you and that stupid professor you work for now. If it wasn't for you I likely wouldn't be here."

"You followed me? But the SS Aqua was loaded with security!"

"Kanto security. Did you forget?"He seethed at her, with also brought a leer from the quadruped. "If someone is wanted in one region, they can go to another and the law can't follow them. A stupid oversight, I know. But it's won me Four Badges!" He held out a small 3-by-12 inch box, opening the lid and showcasing a quartet of badges. The first looked like a interpretation of a bright yellow sun, the second looking like a Silvery-Grey Octagon, the third looking resembling a blue tear-drop while the last one looked like a small yellow circle placed atop a larger one.

"How?! Even if you tried, there's no way you could have passed me! I didn't break at all between Vermillion and Pewter! I even skipped over Viridian!" The only answer she got was a cruel smirk as the redheaded male closed the box and put it back in one of his thick coat pockets.

Kris looked over her shoulder at the man she had just finished battling with. "I'll show you what it's like when a talented battler takes on a pathetic one, just you sit back and watch!"

"Oh, you want me to kick your ass again? Fine. Quilava, take down that Arcanine with what we've been practicing!"

"Archie, brace yourself and ready a flamethrower!"

The Quadreped fire weasel reared back, baring it's mouth wide open as a colunm of energy built up within it's mouth. It didn't look anything like an attack Kris was familiar with, so with no other choice, she quickly ordered her Arcanine to let loose his own stream of fire. The ground was quickly scorched as the blaze of flames consumed what grass was trying to grow on the ground, the billowing fire racing toward the smaller fire-type.

"Hold it back...Hold it back..." The fire billowed around the steady Johto starter, the flames licking at it's already hot fur. In a similar fashion it whipped around her male rival, concealing the pair from her sight.

"That had to do something!" Kris remarked, watching as the flames slowly dissipated into smoke and Archanine was left panting heavily. "Good job boy!"

"He's still alive...HOW is he still ALIVE?!" The Saffron citizen shouted, pointing a finger at the duo as the smoke died down to reveal the other side of the scarred earth. The two stood there, in the same position as before, only Silver crossed his arms and had a disappointed look on his face while the Quilava now had a large spinning four-pointed star hanging out of his mouth.

"What a lukewarm flamethrower." His eyes turned down to look at his own starter. "Quilava, Flame Sniper!"

In an instant, the head of the creature rocked forward, spitting the four-pointed star of flames out of his mouth. As it ejected out of the creature's mouth, Kris briefly caught what looked like the stem of a burning arrow behind it, even with flaming 'feather's at it's rear. The fire-arrow suddenly whizzed forward, vanishing.

Then a loud booming noise ricocheted about the path, and Kris along with the male she had been demonstrating to gripped their ears in pain as they fell to the ground. Neither could hear anything over the loud noise as she collapsed onto her side, curling into a fetal position not unlike what Takuya had done earlier that day when his memory escaped him. She opened her eyes for just a second, only to see Archie crash down onto his side right in front of her, a small whine barely being heard over the fading sound and the ringing in her ears.

"Ar...chie..."

"Arccc..." Kris stumbled to stand up, looking at her fire-dog. Through it's right front shoulder a large pool of blood was forming and draining into the charred earth. "Archie...return!" She weakly shouted, pulling out her pokeball and porting him back into the sphere.

As she began to stand up, the male kicked her in the shoulder, rolling her onto her back. "Ow!"

"Don't think I haven't forgotten. I have a score to settle with you, the woman who broadcasted my actions to the entirety of Johto and got my face on almost every wanted poster back home." He ground his shoe hard into the side of her head, the earth and his foot making a sandwich out of her skull.

The vengeful male looked up at the male, who was still collapsed on the ground. "I recommend you leave. NOW!" His 'recommendation' was readily received as the gardner scampered away, tripping over his feet while putting distance between the two rivals.

"Now that we're alone, I'm going to make sure you enjoy every last second of this..."

* * *

Before you click out, just a suggestion. A friend of mine, Aweshumnesh has been writing a story called 'Redemption'. It's an interesting interpretation of Kanto, Team Rocket, and how war might effect the various characters that we have become familiar with in the games and anime. If you like darker pokemon fics, and don't mind a bit of skimping on details in the opening parts, I HIGHLY recommend it.


	15. Levels of Resistance

"What in the hell is going on here!?"

The sight of the teal-haired female getting her face ground into the dirt by someone's shoe was not exactly the most expected thing to see for Takuya. Jupiter and Ninko stood on either side of him, looking at the situation with as much apparent confusion as he had.

"None of your business, get lost punk." The redhead turned to look at the male absently, but he didn't keep looking in the same mindset. "You're that kid who set me back when I was at Cerulean!"

"You're that ass that stormed into the Cerulean Gym like someone lit a Nuke under your rear! How did you get HERE so fast?" Takuya shook his head several times. "That doesn't matter now! What the hell is going on here?"

"What's it to you...oh, I see." He looked down at the degraded female. "You needed to invest in a man to try and protect you? Some Pokestar you are, hiring bodyguards before anyone even knows who you are!"

"I didn't get paid for anything I did for her."

The male chuckled, looking over at his Quilava. "Oh, I get it now. How much did he pay you?"

A grunt emanated from the women, and with her hands sprawled out beside her, she began to push up, getting her dirt-encrusted face off the ground. "I'm not a cheap whore, I don't lay people for money." She spat some blood out of her mouth as the male pushed her head back into the ground.

"I'm not done with you yet K-"

"Hey kid..." Silver looked up only to see a punch coming right at his face. The redhead jumped back, avoiding Takuya's attempted strike. The trainer threw another one, this was just missing his face to the side by centimeters.

Silver kicked his leg forward, trying to kick him in the groin. It only served to get the inside of his leg knocked sideways hard, spinning him around and tripping him onto the ground. Takuya put his right foot back down on the ground. "Never thought I'd get a chance to use a crescent kick effectively." He walked over, lightly setting his own foot right in the center of the male's face. While he didn't apply any pressure, he made sure the man would get a nice long smell of the dirt he had traversed. "How do you like it? Oh, Kris, are you doing fine?"

The woman picked herself off the ground, wiping her bloody nose and spitting a bloody mass out of her mouth. "I've had better."

"Quilava..." Silver called out, turning his head toward his fire-starter. "Ready another Flame Sniper. Aim right for the boy..."

"Now that's just pathetic on the level of Team Rocket. Attacking another human being with a Pokemon" Takuya commented, applying just a bit of pressure on the rival's ear. "Ninko, Hypnosis."

The shiny Vulpix positioned herself between the fighting males and the Quilava that was readying a blast. She stared into the face of the opponent's pokemon, not paying any heed to the swelling of fire within his mouth.

"You'll never survive this. I didn't think I'd have to use it on a human, but I'm not here to be pushed aro-"

"Kid, let me clue you in. Any man that goes running around, beating up women and using Pokemon to attack others is an idiot that should be put out of their misery. Now luckily for youuuu." He pushed a little harder on the male's temple "I bet that Ninko can neutralize your pokemon and that a good mouthful of dirt will cool you down without a second concern." He looked up at his fire type while Jupiter paced up beside them, looking at the scene with electric charges rushing through his fur, ready to attack something. "Ninko, have you neutralized him yet?"

"Quilava, Flame Sniper!"

The 7-tailed kitsune barked, taking a few steps back and walking away. Silver's Quilava suddenly collapsed on the ground, it's eyes shut tight and the flames it had been readying in it's mouth utterly extinguished. "Lesson learned?" The male took his foot off of the other male, folding his arms and looking down at him. Ninko casually walked toward Takuya, who left Silver to stand on his own while he crouched down and rub the golden fur on her head.

"How in the..hell?" Silver felt a hand grab him by the shoulders, and yank him up hard. He used the momentum to get onto his knees, taking the moment to see who pulled him up. Kris confidently stood there, her face coated with a thin layer of dirt and a large bruise on the side of her face.

"Get up, you petty thief. Why don't you head back home to Johto and turn yourself in." Kris shouted at him

"As if." He shrugged the girl off roughly, straightening his clothes and recalling Quilava into his own pokeball. "Just let it be known that I'll always be better then you, you and whatever fame hungry ideas you come up with." He walked off toward the east, back toward lavender town.

"Takuya...don't." The other trainer stopped in his tracks and looked over his shoulder, back at the female as she brushed the excess dirt off of her face. "He's not worth it."

"Care to explain THIS then?" He remarked, geustring his hands toward Kris and their surroundings. "What the hell went on between you two?"

"After I got Wani-Wani, my official starter, the Totodile, he broke into Prof. Elm's lab."

"Who?"

"The local professor in New Bark Town. He had a trio of pokemon for me to choose, knowing that I was going to head out for a pokemon journey. After I left to run a quick errand for him, Silver broke into the lab and stole a Cyndquil. He ran into me, literally, while fleeing the scene of the crime. After I ID'ed him to the police, a warrant went out for his arrest, for Breaking and Entering, Kidnapping a Pokemon, and something else."

"That's why he's after you?"

"I guess so. The papers informed everyone that I had been the one to ID him, even though I didn't give anyone permission to use my namesake. I was fine with that, except for the fact that now every-time we meet I have to beat him off of me."

Takuya snickered. "You didn't do a good job beating him off of you this time."

"Let's get to Saffron. Archie took a hard hit, and while the Pokeball will convert his matter to data energy and save his life for now, I want to know that he's ok."

"You can't tell me he beat you that easily." Takuya remarked, taking a brisk walk up toward Saffron City with his teal-haired companion beside him.

"Oh, I did what I could. But he's taught his Quilava something I've never seen before."

"Can't be that crazy."

"It was like...like a Sonic Boom. Terribly loud and knocked us all onto our feet except for him. What's even stranger is that it was a fire-type attack, and you know how Fire Attacks are ineffective against Fire-Types. Well, this attack just cleaved right through Archie's shoulder."

"Your exaggerating."

Her face dropped from one of slight confusion to irateness. "No you dolt! Why else do you think I need to get Archie back so soon and how else would he have gotten me on the ground!"

"Fine, Fine. Maybe your right." Under his breath Takuya grumbled "This is why I shouldn't argue with women."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing of importance. Just how I shouldn't argue with women."

* * *

"This job blows. We've been left out here without water for the second day in a row."

"I know. I'd take water, milk, hell, even some Alcohol to quench my thirst."

"You know that Alcohol is one of the cardinal sins." One of the men, dressed in a thick black shirt and some jeans looked over the counter at the other male. The male wiped some of the dripping sweat off of his blond bangs, dryly swallowing.

"I know, I know. But I'm sick of not living just to stay alive! I'd leave this f*cking dump if not for the fact that my wife and child prefer living here." He was similarly dressed in black, swinging a nightstick around in his hands. "Besides, Umbreon has been begging me to go for a long time."

"You'll feel better about it tomorrow, when we head back into the city. Weren't you told to ditch your Umbreon some time ago? Bloody Evil Dark types."

The guard ignored his co-workers question as quickly as he could. "Knowing that I can get water tomorrow isn't helping me today! I have physical needs also you know!"

"Whatever. Just endure it, we'll collect our paycheck tomorrow and buy water then. We're not allowed out of the gates unless specifically told by Sabrina to deal with something, or it threatens our lives."

The brown-haired man leaned his back onto the desk, looking up at the ceiling. "I hate these two walls, two desks, and ceiling. But at least it gets me out of that city. I hate that danm city more then this gate."

"We've got company." The exhausted male rolled over, leaning his body over the desk to look through the gaping hole that would normally have a wall if it was a normal shack. Two teenagers were sprinting up, one of them bringing a Jolteon in tow. "Trainers. You know how much Sabrina hates them, and how they pollute our streets."

"I have never seen them leave any trash around once. Maybe if we're nice to them, they'll let us have some water or something."

"Pfft. Those trainers are rude and obnoxi-"

"Please, let us in quickly!" Kris skidded to a stop between the two opposing desks. "My Arcanine has been badly wounded in a battle and this city is the closest one that would have a healing center."

"No can do little lady."

"Kris, don't start exaggerating to try and convince th...Oomph!" The Johto trainer planted her heel square in the center of the Kanto trainer's foot, cutting him off. Jupiter even visibly winced at the situation.

"Sabrina has made it official, she doesn't want any trainers on her streets just for the sake of loitering."

"Please, I need to heal Archie before it becomes too serious. Everyone knows that a Pokemon can even die within their balls."

"I can't do anything about it." The guard began coughing very heavily.

"You okay Freud?"

"I'm fine. I'm fine. Just thirsty." He coughed roughly again.

"Tell you what Freud. I'll go into the city, buy some water for us, and bring some back for you. It'll take a while, but I'll do what I can." The second guard turned around and began to leave, but shouted one last thing over his shoulder. "Oh, and Freud..."

"Yeah Roy?"

"Make sure neither of them are let into the city. We don't want our positions coming under fire."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know."

After the second guard left, Takuya slid his backpack off of his shoulder, digging through it wildly. Jupiter also rummaged his nose through one of the side compartments, before barking to inform his trainer of something. "What...oh, yeah, I moved which compartment I stored it in!"

The guard, Freud, and Kris looked down at the duo with confused looks. Takuya pulled out a pair of water bottles, each of them with a slightly cool touch, both within plastic bags. "I saw the weather today...actually, that was Eon, never thought she could detect the weather, but I knew how hot it would be today so I bought extra before we shipped out." He tossed one of the water bottles up toward the man, who caught it and fumbled for some time. "Drink up, the last thing Saffron City needs are guards, dead from a heat stroke."

He looked down at the water for a few seconds, before suddenly tearing madly at the lid, snapping it and the top of the plastic bottle off before rapidly gulping down large mouthfuls of Dihydrogen Monoxide. "More?" His question seemed to come between gasping breaths, his lips, mouth, and throat finally wettened again. Takuya tossed the second bottle to him. He didn't open it as quickly as before, removing the lid normally, but he still consumed the entire thing as fast as he possibly could.

"You poor thing." The trainer's attention snapped to his female companion, who was leaning over the edge of the desk toward the guard as he quickly consumed as much water as he could. "You must not have drank anything for days. Do you even have any human interaction outside of that other man?" Takuya looked down at Jupiter, and the gaze between the two could be translated into 'What the hell?'

"This is what I mean when I say that she just changes her mood to suit her fancy." He whispered down to his electric starter.

"No woman to take care of your...needs." Just as he finished the second bottle of water, his eyes widened along with the other teenager's as Kris placed her left hand right between his legs, firmly locking her grasp onto his private area.

"Kris...what...in the hell? You don't even know the man!"

"Shush!" She let go of the man's crotch, swinging her body over the entire desk and crouching in front of him. "Considering how much effort you put out to your job daily, I'm amazed you let them mistreat you like they do." Her hands undid the buckle of the man's belt, sliding it out from the loops. Freud looked down at the situation with wide, confused eyes as the teenager undid the snap and zipper at the front of his jeans, and slid them down along with his underclothes. "You really should be treated much better then that..."

Takuya stood up, looking at the situation unfold. At this time yesterday, Kris had just then started expressing an interest in him, only for them to fuck less then 12 hours later. But this was unprecedented!

"Nice and thick...any woman would kill to have this." She grabbed his flaccid member, stroking it from the base to the tip very slowly. "Have you ever had jailbait pussy before?"

"I...I'm married. I-I won't cheat on m-my wife."

"Fine then. You won't fuck me, but I'll give you the best head of your entire life...deal?" She ran her fingers up and down the insides of his thigh, trying to increase blood circulation to his reproductive organs while shorting out the amount getting to the head he had above his shoulders. "I said...deal?" Her hand tightened the grip around his penis as it began to harden up, rising upwards to point right at her face. A smile graced the female's features. "I'll take that as a yes."

Freud's eyes widened as her mouth began to engulf his horrent member, taking the top and most of the length into her mouth. She then pulled back, her lips dragging backwards over his length until she was at his head, her lips making a kiss-like shape at the very tip of his hardening cock. Just as before, she impaled her mouth on it, going just a bit farther past the halfway point before pulling back, painfully slow in comparison to how fast she would fill her mouth with his masculinity.

"Oh...Danm it..." As she began to fill her mouth a third time, he rocked his hips forward, the brown-headed guard jamming his entire solidity into her.

"Holy...fuck." Takuya gasped, watching the unexpected scene play out before his eyes. Out of consideration for the parties involved he was trying to keep his own rising erection flattened within his pants, turning and looking away. "This is...to awkward to be normal."

Kris looked up at the much older male she was sucking off, watching his face contort in pleasure. She briefly detached her mouth, allowing her right hand to do the necessary thrusting motion. "You can use the bike handlebars in my hair, that's what they are for." She licked the underside of his thick manhood once more, and then proceeded to jam it within her mouth again, keeping her head stable as he rammed his hips back and forth into her face. His hand grabbed her by the 'v' shaped sections of her hair, and with a mighty push he rammed his entire length into her face, his thick and bushy pubic hair covering her noes and eyes, giving her a smell of the weeks and weeks of sweat that had built up on his body under the hot summer days.

The brown-haired male pushed her back roughly, forcing her to gasp for air after her face was separated from his masculinity. Before she could try to fully regain her breath, he jammed her back onto his cock, filling her entire mouth all the way to the back of her throat with his length. "Do you like sucking cock, bitch?" He called, or more accurately, shouted out. "This large piece of man meat?"

Kris pushed herself off of the male. "Oh yes, I love it. How could I not!?" Just as she finished her response he pushed himself back into her again, even more forcefully then before.

"Then take it all in! Swallow it all and beg for mercy! I'll choke your life out with my manly sword!" He rocked her head back hard, then jammed it forward again, never once letting go of his tight grip on her hair. "Come on bitch, you don't know what you got yourself into!"

Takuya stepped out of the building, sitting down directly beneath the blazing hot early-afternoon sun, hoping to put a little extra distance between the young woman and the much older man she was performing fellatio on. "So much for her 'Archie'. Now our companion has ditched her Pokemon's safety for a quick bang. Definitely NOT girlfriend material, as if I didn't already know that."

"Jolt!"

Takuya ran his hand through Jupiter's coarse, spiky fur. "I'll find a girl after I prove out my theories...and become Champion. After all, a true Champion should kno-"

"Come on, humiliate my face while you still can!"

The male groaned. "Danm. Not only is she a mood breaker, she broke my train of thought also."

"Take it all in your mouth and throat bitch! You're going to be breathing in my semen when I launch it into your dirty skull!" Kris was being rocketed back and forth at a mind-numbing pace, for both her and anyone that would be looking on. She separated once more, grabbing him and jerking him hard with one hand while groping his testicular sack with the other. "You know you want to fill my mouth up, huh? Fill my dirty cock-sucking mouth up like you were going to impregnate your wife!" She plugged her mouth with his manhood once more, hoping to hear a bit more dirty talk from him.

What she did get instead was much more satisfying. A massive flood of semen spilling into her mouth from the male, coating her mouth and throat instantly. While she was bale to suck down the first of his barrage without problem, her throat and mouth quickly backed up and his subsequent sprays into her mouth spilled out the sides of her face, running down her chin and falling on the floor beneath them.

She pulled back, running her hands over her face to take off the excess cum, and she licked them off subsequently afterwards. The male stumbled back, his back leaning against the wall as he gasped heavily to regain his breath after his ejaculation. "That was..." A embarrassed smile came over his face as Kris licked his cock, cleaning it off of any excess semen. "...The first time anyone has done that with me in four years."

"What about your wife?" Kris asked, sucking her fingers dry as she greedily wolfed down his excess essence. "God, I love the taste of a man's salty essence."

"I...It doesn't matter. Just don't tell her." He reached down to his clothes, beginning to slide them up. "I'm really embarrassed now...let's just not talk about it."

Takuya walked back in, watching as Kris stood up with a slightly damp chin, licking her lips like a crazed candy addict, and the guard fixed his pants. "So now that you've had your fun, are we going to do any Gym Battling, or for you, repair your Arcanine?"

"I've not forgotten. I wanted to give the man a favor for letting us in the city...right?" She leaned over to him, groping his crotch very quickly.

"No. You already gave me water. I guess for that, can I let you guys stay at my house for the night?"

Kris and Takuya were both taken aback, only Jupiter was unfazed by it. "Uh...I guess."

"Just overnight. This city isn't as friendly to trainers as it used to be. You should be out of here by morning. I'll lead you to the Pokecenter and show you the way to Saffron's Gym also."

"Question, do you have a computer at your house with internet access?"

"Yeah. You need it?"

"I earn most of my money through an online vlogging series, I hope you'd be ok if I used it."

"Go ahead."

"You can do that. I'll be getting my team ready for a battle this evening at the Saffron Gym!" Kris clapped her hands together, completely acting like she hadn't been performing oral sex with the man just mere seconds ago. "Thanks for the offer, we'll take it. And your wife won't find out about anything."

* * *

Really excited to write this arc, the Saffron City Arc, as I'd call it. It basically starts with this chapter and continues until the Gen4 Pokemon actually start making appearances. I have some big plans for this section, larger then the Starter Arc (Start of the story until Pewter City's Gym Battle) the Rocket Arc (Mt. Moon until Cerulean City) and the Kris Arc (Cerulean City until last chapter).

For any of you who are put off by the amount of sexuality that has been recently been introduced into the story, there is a reason. Kris is meant to be a deconstruction of the typical 'Female trainer goes on a journey and screws everything under the sun' trope that appears in alot of stories. This trend is more noticeable on , but it occurs on this site also. There are other reasons also, but that's the primary one.

Feel free to continue to leave feedback on my conversation forum or through reviews. Relax, no one will judge you if they see you reading this.


	16. Darkness in the Realm of the Psychic

"I don't like this." Takuya commented as Freud led them through the streets.

"Everyone seems so...distant." Kris whispered back to him. Their eyes scanned the streets, looking at the various citizens in the city. "Like in their eyes, they just seem...glossed over, like they don't care about the world."

"Don't make a huge fuss about it. It's been this way for about 2, maybe 3 years now." The guard remarked, leading them through the streets. "Just don't make a fuss about yourself, and they'll leave you alone. Like they do everyone else...Ah! Here we are! Your Pokecenter!"

Kris and Takuya looked at the building design that seemed to stay the same regardless of where it was. "You head on in there Kris, get Archie repaired, and seek out the Gym we passed by earlier. I'll nail the gym tomorrow. I'd like to meet this guy's family. Knowing how badly you screwed over Misty in Cerulean, it'd probably be best for me to wait until morning."

Kris' smile easily complimented her response. "Ok then. Just remember, It might be late until I get home tonight. Stay awake for me." She winked, turning around and sashaying her hips as she headed through the sliding glass doors. Jupiter looked up at Takuya once again. "It's weird how the only conversation-like moments we have had today has been grinding for money in battle, or in confusion about that girl." He remarked to the electric-type.

"I'll show you home to my house. I can go and retrieve the young girl around evening, which is when her battle will likely be over." He remarked.

"Fine by me. Can I ask you a question though?"

"Sure?"

"Would you or your family have any...objection, to letting Pokemon outside of their Pokeballs?"

"Not at all. I don't think our Umbreon has been inside of his ball but once. Though I don't know how my kid might react to having a new set of Pokemon in the house."

"Well then, we'll just have to wait, find out, and see."

* * *

"I'm home!"

"Daddy!" A young boy of about 5 years of age ran toward the door, arms outstretched. The father squatted down on one knee, arms open as he scooped his son into his arms.

"Good to see you little buddy! How was school today?"

"We learned how to count by eights!" The young child raised all the digits on his right hand and only two on his left, earning a chuckle from his father.

"That great, but you only have 7 fingers there. Let me help you out..." The older man gently raised the middle finger on the son's hand in addition to the rest of the raised fingers and thumbs. "...and there's eight!" The child looked at his hands, briefly transfixed by the sight, before tearing through the house. "Mommy! Mommy! I was wrong, THIS is how an eight looks like!"

"Hey Umbreon." Freud causally stated, rubbing the head of the dark-type Eeveelution. It reared back it's head, making a faint noise in it's throat as it greedily received the attention given to it. "I know I'm back early, but we have guests." A brief pause as the man seemed to think about the situation. "Roy can take care of the situation. I can trust him." He let the Umbreon alone, heading farther into the house. "Corey. Corey?"

A short, slightly chubby woman turned around, her hands pre-occupied with a cooking utensil and the handle of a pan that was full of meat. Without skipping a beat she continued to play the part of a perfect house-wife, diligently stirring the meat inside of the pan. "You're back early. Normally you wouldn't show up until this time tomorrow." She flatly stated. "Any reason in particular?"

"We have guests."

She dropped the wooden spoon into the pan with a clang. "Oh, no no no NO! NOT another one of those trainers from outside the city! You KNOW how crazy they are, coming in and disrupting the flow of everything inside of this city!" The redheaded woman wiped her hands on the worn apron she had adorned, before casting it off and briskly walking through the house. "Whoever you are, get out of here! This is why we have Pokemon Centers, for you slouches to goof off in, not a civilized person's house!"

Takuya leaned against the outside of the house, looking at the neighborhood as Jupiter proceeded to chase a wild Farfetch'd on the ground, as it jumped back and forth, trying to avoid the jaws of the electric predator. "I don't get it. When I heard about Saffron City, it said that the city had been thriving. I know they had a strong drop in population by about 25 percent in the last two years, but that wouldn't explain why everyone acts so...complacent." He tapped his finger against his chin. "Has there been a recent crisis in the city that still has everyone shell shocked? I hope not, because if Tauros crap hits the fan, then we need to get ou-"

The door suddenly flew open, grabbing both male's attention. "Get out of here! We don't want you trainer types around! Out out out out out! Take you, and your filthy, uneducated, corrupted minds and bodies out of my yard, out of our streets, and out of our cities!"

Takuya took several steps back in shock as the woman, who barely came up to his lip, stormed out the door, waving a dish-towel at him and frantically pointing to the street. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me! Take you, and all of your wild pokemon, and get the hell out of here! While you at it, you should take my husband's Umbreon, I'm sick of that...THING...being in my house!" She waved the towel in his face wildly, and the strange-looking action caused a snickering-like sneeze to leave the electric Eeveelution's nose.

"Gezutike." Takuya turned his attention back to the women. "If you want me out so bad, you could have just said it calmly to my face. I'll leave now. It was nice to meet you." The teenager bowed his head and upper body, followed by the swift motion of him spinning on his heels and walking off. "Come on Jupiter, we're going to be checking into the Poke'center after all...Jupiter." Takuya turned his face to see that what was likely his strongest pokemon at the moment had been tackled to the ground by a foe unlike any he had seen yet.

"Your spiky, but it feels realllly cool!" The young child had pushed the electric-type onto his left side, and was leaning on his right side with small hands digging and rubbing all through the quadreped's fur. The look in the Jolteon's eyes could be equated to 'Please, Kill me now.'

The trainer clicked his tongue at the young kid. "Sorry to disappoint you sonny-boy, but we've got to go." Takuya held up his pokeball, ready to port Jupiter in.

"Wait! Takuya! Don't go yet! I can convince my wife to let you stay." Freud dashed out of the house, holding both hands in the air and standing beside said woman. "What do you say honey? Our son has taken a strong liking to his Jolteon, why can't we let him stay?"

"I still say no. You know how the general public feels about having trainers in the city, and frankly, I reflect their stances. They're warmongering, cockamania teenagers that only want to disrupt everything they come into contact with."

"Mommy, can we keep him? He feels so spiky!"

"Can you say no to THAT face hun?" The husband pointed to the half-pouty face the child made. It earned only an exasperated sigh from the woman. "Fine, whatever." Her eyes rolled in a very pronounced fashion at the second word. "Only for the night. I want him out of here tomorrow."

"I and my female accomplice will be gone early in the morning, Ma'am." Takuya interjected, still holding the sphere in his hand.

"See! He'll be gone WAY before we do anything tomorrow honey. Hmmm?" He lowered himself to her level, lightly kissing her on the neck. Takuya had to stifle a guilty feeling, knowing that only about an hour ago his illegitimate 'girlfriend' had been blowing this married man, who still seemed to be 'close' to his wife. While clipping the Pokeball back onto his belt, his feet shuffled nervously.

"Fine. He can stay only overnight and until the morning, him, his girlfriend, and their...pokemon." She spat, turning around in anger. "But I will NOT be feeding them, that will be their duty."

"I can't speak for Kris, but I know that I can easily feed myself and my team." Takuya remarked, walking toward the door. With a seemingly mighty shove, Jupiter pushed himself back onto his feet, the young five-year old putting a tremendous strain on his back as he tried to ride the electric-type like a young kid would ride a large dog.

"Perkunas, Ninko, Eon! Come on out!" Takuya remarked, pulling his remaining three Pokeballs off of his belt and releasing the contents inside across the floor. Perkunas landed on all fours and stood up right after-wards, his nose and eyes overwhelmed by the radically different set of sights and smells. Ninko looked around the room for sometime, before pacing down a hall off to the side.

The Umbreon leapt up from his perch on the table, jumping onto all fours and shouting it's name viciously at Eon. The Espeon stood there for a second, her two-pronged tail flipping back and forth behind her as her dark-type counterpart angrily growled at her. Interpreting it more as a threat against her master, Eon quickly jumped in-front of Takuya, putting herself closer to the Umbreon. In response, the dark-type leapt back a bit farther, it's circular spots on it's body glowing as it began excreting a defensive poison.

"Umbreon! Relax! They are friends!" The 'man of the house' interjected, his voice coming just between a shout and normal voice tone. "They'll just be over for the night. Don't worry, they aren't here to hurt you or kick you out. You know I'd never let that happen!"

The black and yellow pokemon turned it's red eyes to his master, before stepping back a few feet, circling a different place on the table, and sat back down to rest, not taking it's eyes off of Eon for a minute.

"You have an Espeon!?" The woman called out, her voice suddenly much more high-pierced and excited, like a proud mother. "Oh, just let me touch him! Let me touch him!"

The male starred at the woman for a second, not believing the ridiculous change in the women's attitude. "Eon is a female." He looked down at his psychic type. "Do you mind?"

_As long as she doesn't cart me away, sure._

Takuya chuckled at the dry sense of humor. "She's fine with you touching her." His eyes widened in disbelief as she pulled the velvet-furred creature up to her chest, wrapping her arms around it and squeezing with a normal amount of force. "Oh, you are SOOOO adorable! I just love your type and everything you can do! And you're communicating with your trainer already, that is so cool!"

Eon's gaze carried over the woman's shoulder, cleaving into Takuya's head. "Don't look at me, you heard her!" He decided to 'think' more about his response then actually voice it, lest it offend the hostess. _I just didn't know that touch equated into hug here in this house._

_It's fine...just really weird._ The female Eeveelution remarked as the housewife continued to fawn over her.

* * *

Several drops of blood came forth from Kris' nose. "Little Miss...Return." She held her pokeball up, recalling the Ghost-type. "Natee, You're up." The teenaged female yanked the sphere off of her belt, dropping it onto the ground and releasing the bird. "Use the safeguard!"

The dark haired trainer smirked. "It's no use. Mime, use Psychic again. I'll go after her." The clown-colored Pokemon closed it's eyes, focusing on the spherical-like bird intensely. The gym leader also closed her eyes, and Kris felt another strong pang within her mind. "Just hold out...Just...hold...out."

The pain suddenly left, and Mr Mine collapsed to the floor, as did Sabrina, both utterly unconscious. Kris gasped for several seconds, hands and knees still on the ground as the clarity of mind once again returned to her. "Arceus bless you, Little Miss. And Sliph Co." She gingerly raised her hand up to her ears, pulling out a pair of tiny orange earplugs. "If not for the Perish song and these earplugs I wouldn't of had a chance in hell."

She pushed herself back up, leaning against the wall as Natu hopped up onto her lap, looking at her with it's Egyptian-like eyes. "It's been nothing but a stroke of all kinds of lucky today. She took out Wani-Wani, Monlee, Archie, and Bonee just with her Alakazam alone, and I'm not sure HOW we would have done if not for Little Miss' critical hit against that Espeon." She sighed heavily, swallowing. "Never again do I battle a Psychic-type trainer. I hate having that bitch bouncing around in my head, screwing up my plans and strategies."

A noise came from across the battlefield, and the teal-haired female looked across the dark room to see the Psychic-type trainer roll over and begin to stand up. "What was...?"

"Perish Song. Compliments of Little Miss. After hearing it, any and all opponents on the battlefield collapse within 2 minutes, regardless of species."

Sabrina gently cradled her head, a loud pounding resounding within it. "Then how did you?"

Kris smirked, deciding to mess with the Gym-leader. "I've been training along side her, so I've become immune to the effects." She lied.

"Very well." The woman stood up, brushing any dust off of her black and red turtleneck. "I guess I owe you the Marsh Badge."

"Thank you so much Sabrina." Kris cockily replied, slowly standing up. "Next time we meet though, rather it be on the battlefield or elsewhere, please stay out of my head."

The woman walked toward the victor, dropping a symbol looking like one yellow circle atop a slightly large yellow circle. "What kind of trainer are you if your Pokemon have to do all the fighting?"

"I'm not here to be a Pokemon and Human Champion. Pokemon Champion is on my agenda, thank you." Kris wiped the blood off of her nose. "I'll be going off now." She turned around, walking confidently away from the battle scene, Natee hopping behind her to keep pace.

"Oh, and Kris...Tell Takuya, I'm looking forward to the battle we'll be having tomorrow. I need to break my loosing streak."

Kris shot a glance over her shoulder. "I'm not even going to question how you know of him. He'll find out."

As the teen stepped out of the room, Sabrina walked across the wide expanse, collapsing in the throne-like chair she normally used. "Now I need to get this resonance out of my head before tomorrow. This is why I hate trainers." She gently massaged her temples, attempting to abate her headache. "I need to change the guards to people with stronger resolve, that girl is the second of three trainers that are supposed to come in and defeat me, on three consecutive days."

* * *

"See! I told you that would look better!"

Ninko looked into the hand-mirror. The normally curly fur at the top of her head was now straightened out, pulled out and down over her neck and rolling off her side. She turned her head just a bit, stunned by the clear reflective abilities and by what had been done to it's fur.

"I couldn't get your tails to do the same thing though. They're so curly." The young boy remarked. "When I get older, I'm going to make sure that all the pokemon in the world look pretty and handsome like you!" The 7-tailed kitsune looked over her shoulder, taking a glance at the young human. "Go on, Show everyone else!" While it didn't want to take those exact orders from the child, it did take the opportunity to leave. She liked having the attention bestowed upon her, evidenced by how content she was to sit on the boy's lap and be pampered, but she badly needed to fix her fur.

Takuya wiped his mouth clean, sitting on the table next to Perkunas, who was busy stuffing his face and ballooning his cheeks up with assorted grains and fruits. "Do not choke. Seriously." The electric mouse looked up at the trainer for a second. "Seriously." The small creature went back to wolfing down the food, all but ignoring his trainer's commands.

He took a look across the room one more time, into the kitchen. During the meal time, oddly enough, the woman of the household, which he had learned was named Corey, had invited him in. Or to be more precise, had invited him to bring Eon to eat alongside the family. Upon understanding that Takuya wouldn't be there also, she declined the offer. She was currently grooming herself on the other side of the room, having just finished her 'shared' meal with the rest of the team.

Image suddenly flashed in Takuya's mind, the sight of him and his team outside of Saffron City, which was followed shortly afterward by a clock spinning rapidly. "What in the?" Takuya leaned forward, looking around in confusion. "What in the hell was that?"

"Brea..." The male looked down to see Umbreon standing beside him on the table. "Brea." He gently pressed his nuzzle into Takuya's hand. Once again Takuya envisioned a set of seemingly unrelated images. This time the sight of himself standing outside the gates of Saffron City took hold in his mind once again, coupled with the thought 'image' of Corey' pointing him out of the house.

"Okay...what the hell is going on?" Takuya stood up, looking right down at the dark Eeveelution similar to how a parent would look at a child when they wanted an explanation.

"Bre-ON!" It nudged his knee, as if it was trying to push him.

"Eon, a little help here. I think he's trying to-"

_I can't help you. Dark types are completely immune to Psychics. I thought you would remember that._

Several more assorted images appeared in the trainer's head. "I know that Dark types can communicate VIA transferring mental images through touch. I just don't know what it means!"

Eon stood up, arcing her back before walking forward. _Perhaps I could..._

A strong and powerful image of Eon being forced to the ground and bitten in the neck by Umbreon overpowered his mind to the point that he staggered, and briefly knocked out him hearing anything she said.

_...okay?_

"I think I'm fine. I don't know if it wants you dead or just away." The subsequent picture-reply showcased Espeon having a large distance away from the Umbreon, which had it's back turned to her. "I think he just doesn't want you near him, and will attack you if you get any closer." Another image appeared, one of the Gym-Leader Sabrina standing several stories above him and his team of four, a scowl on her face. "I know that we're not welcome here, but I'm not leaving without that gym badge...Are you even understanding me?" The images that were put into his head now just seemed to be looping now. "Eon..."

_How would I know? I'm psychic, not omnipotent._

Takuya tried focusing on an image in his head, hoping that maybe the Umbreon would pick it up. He tried envisioning him and Kris both holding open small boxes, each of them holding the various badges of the Kanto region, and with a bit of imagination, focused heavily on the Saffron City Badge. The barrage of incoming images stopped for a second, giving Takuya a possible indication that Umbreon was understanding what he was trying to communicate. He continued by envisioning Sabrina, holding out a gym badge, with several psychic-type pokemon out cold behind her. The third and final image was of him walking out of the gates to the city.

There was a moment of silence on the physical and mental plane. Umbreon then replied with another set of images. The first image was of a large group of people, far as the eye could see, all standing still with their eyes closed and heads bowed. The second image was a repeat of him and his team underneath a towering Sabrina, only difference was that Umbreon had included someone with the likeness of Kris behind him. The final image was of an empty hole in the ground, containing the body of what looked to be a city guard...possibly Freud?

_It seems he's concerned that your presence here endangers his master?_

"How..." Takuya dropped the talk, for one to seem less crazy but to also keep the conversation 'silent' to anyone who might have been listening. _How were you able to see?_

_I tried focusing only on your mind, and I could perceive the general images in your head._

_Ok. So what should I do?_ The trainer responded, taking his eyes off the Umbreon and focusing on his velvet-furred opposite.

Whether or not he got a reply was overshadowed. The front door swung open and Kris stepped in, the host of the current visit following right behind her. "Tak."

"Kris..." He narrowed his eyes.

"-Uya... Do I have a story to tell YOU!"

* * *

Reviews would be much appreciated. I've actually gotten most of my plot ideas from suggestions and theories sent in by reviewers, so in a sense, YOU guys are the one propelling the story's later arcs, not me.


	17. A Mentally Sound Defeat

"And you must, must MUST remember that she will try and pry into your mind with her own abilities!"

Takuya set on the guest bedroom's bed, listening to the Teal-haired female as she continue to go on and on about the battle. "Let me get this straight. There are panels inside the gym that port you to different sections of the gym, her three preferred pokemon is a Alakazam, Espeon, and a Mr. Mine, and they are all SO overpowered that you, in all of your depths of battle knowledge, struggled to beat them? Oh, and not just that, Sabrina will also try to overwhelm your mind and break it."

"That's about it!" She looked at his face as he stared down, casting his eyes onto the ground. "What, do you not believe me?"

"It's not that. I'm sure you know that of all the Pokemon species, only three are known to communicate with humans. Psychic, Ghost, and Dark, right?" She nodded. "Freud's Umbreon was trying to communicate with me earlier. I don't know if it's just the pressure of being a dark-type Pokemon living in a city that is heavily populated with Psychic types, or what. But he kept showing me...images."

"Of what?"

"Don't interrupt me and I'll tell you." He remarked, taking his eyes off the floor and looking her in the face. "Dark types, or at least those with a Dark-Type dominance, communicate sending images, emotions, or a mixture of both into your mind rather then a perceived verbal speech that is placed in your head. Umbreon showed me a series of images that all revolved around I and my team getting out of the city, and seemed to portray Sabrina having malicious intent. He seemed very intent on me leaving."

"He's a dark type, you know how they have a fierce hatred for Psychics and visa versa."

"Maybe...but something just doesn't seem right. There are other small, assorted things that aren't adding up. For instance, why did everyone in the city seem so bland, like no one had any emotional sway. Why does our hostess seem to have such an intense dislike for her husband's Pokemon, but was so receptive of my Espeon...And has this city's sharp population decline been caused by whatever had caused these things?"

"You're thinking to much." Kris responded. "Populations ebb and flow, and I can't answer the others. Look, you can just wake up in the morning, challenge Sabrina, and we'll move on. Sound good?"

"I guess...this is just sticking in my craw."

"Your what?"

Takuya shrugged off the question. "I should just sleep. Dwelling on this stuff isn't going to get me anywhere." He laid on his back, releasing a yawn into the world right before turning over onto his front.

The teal-haired female crouched down next to him, running her hands up and down his back. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Aren't we together now?"

The male turned about 90 degrees. "We're traveling companions. I don't know what possessed you last night when you decided that you wanted me to bone you."

"You didn't resist."

The male blushed in frustration. "I was dead asleep when you jumped me! What, are you saying that a virgin male is supposed to reject a woman blowing him in the dead of the night?"

The nature of the question was not one she understood. "Maybe a more appropriate question..." Kris sat, pulling her legs up to her body. "...does that really matter to you?"

"Why yes, yes it does really matter to me. You know, on this trip, I had a few goals. Getting laid was not one of them. And while I'm not complaining that it happened, I am complaining that you think a quick fuck and we're automatically an item. I would at least like to get to know a girl on a more personal level before we were to start banging." He pushed his upper body up with his arms. "As opposed, you haven't told me much of anything about yourself except that your from Johto, and that the Silver character we ran into earlier despises you. Ever since we got to Lavender Town you've been different."

"Eon didn't tel-" The female chopped her sentence off right in the middle. "How would you know what's different about me and what's not? We've barely been together for 3 days."

"Wait wait wait wait. Eon didn't tell me what?"

_That she was only mating with you just so she could ride on your fame._ The Espeon slowly traipsed in, jumping onto the bed and curling up at the foot. _Perkunas is asleep on the living room table, Ninko and Jupiter are at the foot of your bed on the floor._

"Fame? What fa...Ohhhh, I see now. You only want to take advantage of my vlogs. Don't you?"

Silence.

"Eon, why did you not tell me earlier?"

_You didn't ask, and I assumed you and her discussed that when I was inside one of the spheres._

The male seethed between his teeth, letting out excess frustration. "Fair enough, I can't fault you for that." He turned his face back to Kris. "You could have just asked to be on my vlog. Geez, I try NOT to be a difficult man to approach about these things."

"How would I have known THAT?"

"No need to get shrill. You just should have asked, I would have had no problems featuring you for a day. I feature almost half of everyone I battle."

"So will you feature me?"

"Maybe, fine yes. I don't know. I want to sleep right now. All this does is add another thing I need to work out. Sheesh." He collapsed his face against the pillow again. "Night Kris. I'll see you in the morning. And DON'T JUMP ME!" With a little bit more focus on thoughts rather then words, he attempted speaking with the other female in the room. _We'll be up earlier then usual Eon. I plan to take out Sabrina early tomorrow._

_Very well. You know how I enjoy the morning sunlight._

* * *

"Welcome to the Saffron Gym!"

"You're the fourth person already to say that to me after I kicked their ass. Which f*ng panel do I use to port into the center where Sabrina is at? And please, a straight answer will suffice!"

"If you've made it this far and defeated all my other companions, I might as well tell you. It's that panel on the left. Be careful though. Sabrina is a very powerful women with very powerful pokemon."

"I was told beforehand. Thank you kid."

"My name is-" Takuya didn't bother hearing the young pre-teen out as he suddenly appeared in another dimly lit room. Unlike the other ones though, this one didn't have a set of four different teleportation panels, rather, only the one he had just stepped on and one he assumed would take him out.

"I've been expecting you, Takuya." The feminine voice came from across the room. With a bit of focus, he attempted to look at the woman on the other side of the room. "I was told about you, and your two compatriot's arrival, three years ago, almost to this very day."

"Two compatriots? I'm only traveling with a girl, unless you want to count my team."

"The red-head wasn't with you?"

"Not hardly."

"Hmmm, it seems that my powers of foresight are more limited then I thought. I need to train harder." He was barely able to make out the feminine curves and the dark hair which heavily contrasted the red on her form-fitting turtleneck and pants. In order to show some respect, he resisted the urge to whistle at her form. "You're after the Marsh Badge. I don't enjoy battling, but it's my duty as a Gym Leader to confer Badges on anyone who has proven him- or herself worthy. Since you wish it, I will show you my psychic powers!"

"Very well. Let's do this." Takuya responded back. He grabbed the pokeball that Eon was held in, rolling it gently in his hand. "You might be a psychic, and that might be a terrible start for this battle, but I don't have anything else that comes close to resisting her type at all."

"You're hesitating..." The woman remarked. "Alakazam, I choose you!"

"...Eon, use Confusion before it get's a chance to hit you."

"Alakazam, use Reflect for any upcoming attacks."

Eon's own attack easily phased through the transparent shield that was erected, but whatever damage is might have done was insignificant. "Danm it. It's going to take so long just to break through this shield, and I doubt that we can last several minutes waiting for this to go down..." He furrowed his brow. "Eon, Quick Attack!"

The lilac quadruped rushed toward it's opponent, slamming right into the shield it had up and repeatedly banging against it, trying in vain to make some progress against it. While the spoon-holder did make a bit of a 'Oomph' as he held up the field, it appeared to do no damage.

"Alkazam, Future Sight."

"Oh god, she's just setting up for a major impact. Eon! Let's move quick! Quick Attack one more time..." Before he could even see the Espeon make contact, he collapsed to the ground, a heavy weight placed on his head.

"You'll need to focus. How can you expect your Pokemon to follow if you can't lead?" The voice of the woman seemed to reverberate around in his head. "I'm amazed you didn't try defending against this. Surely Kris had told you." She remarked, watching his wrap his hands around his head in agony.

"Get out of my head, it's not your property!"

"Alakazam, Psychic." The commands still sounded like they came from her physical persona, and her fighter engaged in his first attack. Simply by the amount of power at is disposal, he easily overwhelmed the male's first battler. Takuya was barely able to look up to see the Espeon landing beside him, skidding on her side. "Eon..."

She gingerly stood up, stumbling toward the male with an obvious limp in her walk. _Let me Help you out..._

"It's my fight! I'll take care of this on my own. You go and take out her..."

_I can help relieve that pressure of yours off of your head._ She lightly pressed her head against his, hoping he would let her in.

"I'll handle it myself...I can't be allowed t-"

Just at that time, the Future Sight took effect. Due to their close-proximity, both of them were sent flying back as a blast of psychic energy manifested in a physical form plowed into both of them.

The male landed on his back, his vision spinning rapidly. Normally, he would have chided himself for walking right into a blast like that, but with the intense pressure on his head, the thought of self-shame didn't cross his mind. The first thing that came to his mind, still suffering under the force of telepathic assault, was the safety of his team member.

Takuya started to roll over, looking at his battler. Only her labored breathing signified that she was still fine. Silently he muttered profanity, and recalled Eon back into her sphere. "Ninko... You're up." he remarked, grabbing the sphere on his belt. Yet before he could even let the fire-type out, he collapsed from the mental pressure.

* * *

The bright sun glared down on his face. Takuya stared upwards into the sky, his gaze striking absolutely nothing. A loud and pounding headache resonated within his skull, causing even the sunlight in the sky to leave a aching feeling in his eyes. He started to move his head, only for it to increase the pain. For a second, he rescaled similar pain back at the start of his journey. "What...?"

"About time you woke up." A familiar voice called out to him. "I don't know how long you've been out, just laying on the road-side here."

"Who...Kris!" Takuya began to sit up, picking himself up off of the scorched ground, regardless of the terribly loud pounding that threatened to knock him down with each beat. "What happened back there?"

"To me, or you? I have no idea what happened to you, but you look 20 times worse for the wear, like someone just dropped you here, outside of the city limits. Did someone jump you for the badge?"

"I...don't think I got the badge. Is my tea-"

"I took the liberty to check, yes, all of your pokemon are on your belt. What do you mean you didn't get the badge?!"

"After Eon got knocked out, my memory blanks out. But she didn't stand a chance. I don't think anything I could have thrown would of stood a chance in hell against them."

"Fine. You know, we could go head back in the city and try..."

"Try again? Not hardly. If we're nowhere close in power, we are nowhere close. It's going to take a lot of grinding, and maybe get these guys to learn some new techniques, and find out why I suddenly ended up, blacked out, on the side of Route 7."

"We have no worries. We've got Celadon to the West and Vermillion to the south.

An obvious question hit Takuya, despite the slowly fading throbbing in his head. "...by the way, why are you outside of the city limits?"

Kris chuckled. "Our hostess kicked me out just before I left."

"What?"

"Oh yeah. She said she found out about how I blew her husband, and chased me out with a frying pan and a plank of wood, screaming all sorts of profanity. Oh Acerus, it was hilarious!"

The male blankly stared at her. "You find it funny?"

"Come on Tak...uya. It was just a simple blowjob, it's not like I had him bend me over and take me. Besides, was I to let a man like that go without some service?"

"So for a bit of a thrill, you've now driven away any friends we had in the city AND possibly ruptured what looked to be a decently healthy marriage. What about their child, who up to this point had probably been living a comfortable life with both parents?"

"Like hell if I care." She blew some excess air out of her mouth. "I don't care what they do with their life, it's not my fault if they let something that redundant break up their marriage."

Takuya stood up, rocking back and forth a bit, soreness aching through his body. "Ok, look, I don't know about you, but that's beyond pathetic. I don't give a danm how many people you want to lay, but for god's sake, have some respect for the unity of marriage at least."

"He could have rejected, and I would have let him be." She asked, looking at him with a disappointed look on her face. "Besides, I'm a free woman, I should be able to do what I want! Next you will say that one should only be allowed to have fun times with only one other person."

"I didn't say that. I've said many times the opposite! Can't you get that through your thick head!?"

The teal-haired female smirked. "Maybe I should have worded it differently. You're stuck with me for the rest of your life then."

A blank stare. "What the hell? I never said that. Stop trying to avoid my point!"

The blank stare that Takuya returned to the female only made her giggle a bit. "See. If you made a mistake with someone, you'd be permanently bonded with them forever. As opposed, I can have all the sex I want, and have no worries about what the person is like. Race, gender, species, orientation, background, genetics, I don't care."

"Oh...my...god. How can I reason with someone like you?"

"Don't worry about it so much, for one. We're animals by nature, why should we be forced to deal with all the psychological stress of a forced bond?"

"I don't know, maybe so the next generation has a solid and stable family unit to grow up in, so they can be productive with their lives?"

"Like I care about the next generation? I know that regardless of how I act, kids will still grow up fine. I turned out fine. Hell, I'm one of the best trainers on the road. And you yourself know how much us trainers turn the economy, we're all contributing a lot to society."

"That's it, I give up." He turned around, walking down the path away from Saffron. "If your that self-centered, that self-conceited, I have no reason to even TRY and show you the benefits of others."

"Oh, you're so silly." She playfully swatted him on his back. "We are we headed now, since you didn't get that badge?"

"We? Where did the 'WE' come from? I, yes, I will be heading to Celadon city, get that gym badge, build some extra experience, and try to figure out some way to beat the Psychic Pokemon Mistress."

"Oh, no. This is still a 'WE' partnership. I'm heading with you."

"I can't stand to be with someone with that..." He struggled to finish his sentence before giving up and starting anew. "I'm not going to travel and support someone who destroys any bonds I make!"

"Support? Ha! I've been carrying you on my back this entire journey since we've met. I've paid for our rooms, I got us a roof to sleep under back their, I explained the bit about special abilities, I gave you the rundown on Sabrina's abilities. Name ONE thing you've done for me!"

"Let's see, I saved you from that Silver character, I am the one who decides if you could 'break' into the mainstream via my vlogs. I know how critically important THAT is to you."

The two stood there for several more minutes.

"We're at an interesting crossroads here. I can't force you to leave me alone unless I was to attack you, and that wouldn't be humane...But I'm not just going to let you follow me around and make me guilty by association for anything else you wreck with your ideals."

"And I'm not just going to ditch you..."

The two stared each-other down a bit longer.

"Tell you what, here's my plan. When you go to have a fling with another person, make sure it is so distant from me that I don't have to know about it. That way, when Tauros shit hits the fan, I'm out of it's range because I wasn't there. I'll give you your danm online promotion when I throw together another vlog. That said, now I choose where I go, and what I do. If you want to ditch me, fine." The male spun on his heels, proceeding to walk towards Celadon regardless of his headache.

"Sounds...just like what we have been doing."

The sound of the male howling in anger made her giggle a bit inside.


	18. Poision in the Fountains

The first thing that the pair noticed as they walked into Celadon city was how ridiculously close to Saffron it was. The distance was short enough that a simple 30 minute walk covered the entire distance.

The second thing they noticed was the rich and vibrant colors. It was enough to leave Kris feeling a bit overwhelmed, while Takuya merely rubbed his eyes. "Wow, Never would have expected an entire city looking this bright. Even the freaking skyscrapers are colors of the rainbow." While that statement was a bit of an exaggeration, the glass-clad skyscrapers were actually clear and the windows merely refracted the sunlight, it merely added to the shiny colors of the city.

"What are you planning to do? It's still mid-afternoon, and maybe you could get some Gym badge today."

"KRIS! KRIS, OVER HERE!"

"Did you lay someone else here while I was out cold back on the route?" Takuya asked, only for Kris to groan and roll her eyes.

"I really, really, did not want to run into him again."

A man clad in a stunning bright purple attire could be seen running to the duo as they entered the city. "Kris! Have you had any updates? I've been following rumors and trails and it seems like she's still here, in Kanto!" The dark blonde took his eyes off of the woman for a bit to look at the male. "And who is this dashing young man?"

"I'll give you a run down a little bit later. Takuya, meet Eusine. Eusine, Takuya."

"Most people call me The Mystery Man, but for the sake of business or pleasure, you can call me Eusine." He held his hand out, which the trainer awkwardly shook, trying to keep up with the intense excitement the male was radiating.

"I've encountered her twice since the Burned Tower Incident, but have not had any luck. Last time was just north of Cerulean during the Typhoon."

"It's been that long? Oh dear. She moves so fast, I might have completely missed her by now!" He wiped his brow, a panic-like state overtaking him. "It's just been almost 10 years and I'm worried that-"

"Eusine! Stop! Deep Breaths..." Kris firmly placed her hands on the man's chest. "Good. Try thinking about something else for a second. Takuya here is going to go try and earn the badge here. While he does that, we can confer any information between us."

"Good idea." The male remarked. "It's a shame he can't come with us, your friend is such a nice looking young man..." Takuya's eyes went wide as the male looked at him with a very strange gaze and rolled out the last syllable.

"Yeah, well, I don't really care. Takuya, I hope you don't mind. I haven't earned any dough today, so we'll likely be sleeping under the stars. At 9 'o'clock tonight, meet me back at the gates of the city. I assure you that I'll be there."

"You're off?"

"I told you already. I'm going to go talk with Euisne here. We've been working together on an important project for some time now."

"Wait, before you go!" The male held up his hand, looking at the pair. "You mentioned something north of Cerulean...in the forests north of Route 25?"

"Yeah?"

"You were there? YOU were the one that did all that damage?"

"...Kinda..." The teal-haired female awkwardly scratched the back of her neck before folding up the arms of her stained white lab-coat.

"What in the hell were you fighting!?"

"I'll give you a rundown at a later time Takuya. Maybe tonight."

"Feel free to swing by my place when you're done. The Gym is in the dead center of the town, where most of the skyscrapers are not. My place is in the Rosenburg Apartment Complexes up north, handsome!" Eusine remarked, turning to start walking at a brisk pace, Kris following. The female waved as the duo walked away, leaving the male all alone.

"Did...did that guy just flirt with me? I mean, I know people in the world are like that but..." He dropped off there, struggling to process the idea of a male possibly being attracted to him.

* * *

Takuya sat down on the edge of the city's large water fountain. "The gym seems to be busy for now." He gently rolled the sphere in his hand, looking with nervous eyes at the Pokeball. "Here goes nothing." He pressed the button in the center, flipping the sphere open and re-converting Eon into her solid state. The male had taken time to heal her up at the Pokecenter, but he hadn't let her out since then.

"Eon, I'm sorry. I set you up for a failure. I didn't think enough. I had been so sure, so sure that after the success we had at the last two gyms that this would be a breeze."

She merely looked at him while he continued, her two-pronged tail gently waiving in the wind. "I need to do better for you guys, all four of you."

_Why do you always do this?_

"What?"

_Anytime something goes wrong, you berate yourself verbally and make us listen to it, as if you need to apologize to us for a grave-wrongdoing._

"I don't mean for it to sound like that. It's just that-"

_You're young. In fact, all of us are young. The only one with any real experience before this journey began would be Jupiter. We are going to make a lot of mistakes, both individually and as a team._

"You're right...A better strategy with what I have should help out."

_Why did you not let me help you?_

Takuya looked at Eon for a second, a blank expression overcoming what had been a serious face before that. "You mean back in the battle?"

_Yes._

"I need to fight my own battles. If I force you to deal with all my of my issues and problems, I'll never be able to stretch and grow myself."

_That's not it. Is it?_

"Yes it is."

_You just think that's what it is. Did you forget I can read your mind?_

Takuya narrowed his eyes, focusing a more on his thoughts. _Then what do you think it is?_

_You're scared._

_Scared?_

_Scared of being helpless._

Takuya stood up. "What!?"

_You seem to be fearful of anything with power coming and trying to fix a situation for you. I don't know why._

"Excuse me, are you Takuya Serizawa?" A blonde girl walked up, wearing a short-short skirt and a tight-fitting tank top. "Erika is available for battle now." The female hesitated for a second, looking at the fountain he had been standing by. "And also, I wouldn't recommend standing by the fountain. Alot of Muk have made it their home now for some reason"

"Oh...Thanks." Takuya shuffled away from the innocent-looking toxic water. The very thought of Muk in the water, the same Pokemon that nearly wiped out Vermillion after the war, being that close made him feel extremely uncomfortable. "Lead the way."

_We'll talk more later._

* * *

"I can assume you are Takuya." The petite woman asked. In sharp contrast to Misty and Sabrina, Erika was much smaller, having a somewhat frail look about her.

"You'd assume correctly." The male replied. He looked at her, curled up against a pillow with the red and yellow Kimono hanging off of her body. She began to stand up, grasping for a Pokeball she had laying on the ground beside her in the process.

"I'm sorry I wasn't available earlier. When I fall asleep, I just can't wake up." She remarked.

"Grass Pokemon powders would do that to you..." Takuya whispered to himself. "It happens. Are you ready to battle now?"

"Indeed. I assume my helpers got your in the mood for battling!"

"Yeah, all 7 of them." Takuya remarked. They all had various grass-type or Poison/Grass type, and his team had pretty much breezed through them. Mainly because how untrained most of them seemed to be. "Why did they all have low-level Pokemon?"

"The primary thing we work on in this city is making it look beautiful. Battling comes second. It brings it a lot of tourism, which helps run our city. Anyways..." She weakly tossed the first ball into the air. "Get Ready! I won't hold back! Victreebel, I choose YOU!"

"Ninko, Your time to shine again, and I mean that!" With that, he tossed the golden Pokemon into the battlefield, it's shiny fur catching the eyes of the Gym Leader.

"How beautiful! I've not seen a Shiny type for years! Victreebel, Giga-Drain before the battle get's too thick."

"Ninko, Lite her up with an Ember!"

The fire billowed forth first, wrapping around the grass-type and badly scorching it. "Oh no..." The screams of the plant-type were short lived though, and it's attack did go through the flames as various saplings landed on and around the shiny Vulpix.

"Ninko, Do that same thing again! Press our type advantage!"

"Victreebel, Poison Pow-oh..." The next stream of fire burned the plant-type much worse the before, knocking it out, even with the little bit of energy it had time to drain from the Fire-type.

"Class Act girl! Get ready for the next one." The shiny pokemon stumbled a bit, looking over her shoulder at the trainer. "And brush those seeds off of you before you loose any more health!"

"Tangela!" Her feminine voice carried through the air with much more force then it had when the battle started. "Get out there and Ingrain yourself into the battlefield quickly!"

"Ninko, let loose another Flame-Thrower!"

The next round of flame was like the prior two. Tangela, several of it's tendrils now deeply inbedded in the ground, screamed in agony as the fire scorched her and the grass around her.

"Tangela, Infect her with Poision Powder!"

"Ninko, You know what you need to do!"

This time, Tangela's offensive technique landed first, a burst of purple dust and spores blowing across the grassy battlefield and coating the opponet. "Muscle through it Ninko, Muscle Through it! Give it all the fire you have left!" The next streak of flame indeed did remove the second opponent that Erika had sent out. Tangela collapsed from the heat and was recalled into her Pokeball. "Ninko, You've done well, Return!" Ninko was converted back into a red stream of data and energy, solidly placed back into the Pokeball.

"I'm impressed you made it this long, and so quickly also. But I doubt you have another fire type to stand up against my best Pokemon! Villeplume, I choose you!"

Takuya quickly recalled that the flowery pokemon was a Poison type, something that Psychics were effective in battling. "Eon, time to make up for the failure of this morning!" The Espeon landed on the battlefield, ready for action like she had been that morning.

"Villeplume, use Giga-Drain!"

"Eon, use Confusion!" The gemstone on the Psychic Eeveelution glowed, and the Espeon focused all of it's attention on the poisonous plant. It was soon left stumbling about, injured and extremely dizzy.

"Well, that's a bit harsh!" The kimono-adored female shouted out in rage. "Villeplume, Shake it off and coat it with Acid!"

"Eon, avoid it..." That was called out just a little bit too late, and the quadreped was hit with a burst of a thick liquid released from the Villeplume's head. "Fight it Eon, Don't let it get to you!"

_I...have an idea. Let me try something._

Takuya was a bit shocked as the Quadreped stumbled a bit, plainly communicating with him despite the shakiness of her thoughts and body. "Are you sure..." He remembered earlier, his rejection of her ideas leading him to defeat. "...I guess so. Eon, Get focused and do your thing!"

"Espe!" A series of bright yellow objects began to circle around the lilac-furred creature as she faced the Flower Pokemon.

"Oh no...Villeplume, get out of her way NOW! She's using a Swift strike!"

"Espe...ON!" Several bright streaks of light exploded from Takuya's female fighter, quickly closing the gap between the fighters. In it's confusion, Erika's final pokemon tripped over, allowing the stars to impact the poisonous grass-type on the head.

"Villeplume, are you ok?"

"Villl..."

"Try using a Sleeping Powder!"

"Eon, get it going with another Confusion! Let's take it out on this hit!"

Almost as if the battle had fallen into their favor, Villeplume lazily spat it's Sleeping Powder in a random arc to the side of the battle-field, unable to see straight. It was left open for a psychic attack, and the mental strain knocked it out within seconds. "Villll..." As it fell to the grassy ground with a dull thud, Takuya clinched his fists in excitement.

"FINALLY! Things seemed to fall right into place!" The male shouted, jumping into the air.

_Told you I could handle it._

"I shouldn't of doubted you for a split second Eon! Not a second!"

"Congratulations Takuya." The Gym-leader remarked, gingerly picking up the flower pokemon and cradling it in her arms. "I'm beyond impressed with how well you handled that battle, and how quickly you ended it too."

"Actually, thank YOU. Looking back, I've come to a realization. Strategy is good and all, but sometimes, the warriors on the battlefield know more then those who are calling the shots.

"Well, you and your team were remarkably strong. I confer to you the Rainbow Badge." One of the other young women in the greenhouse-like gym walked up beside Erika, holding a shiny token. It was about the same size as the Pewter and Celadon badges, only this one had eight rainbow colored petals surrounding it's center, each one a different shade, while the very center was a solid silver color.

"Thank you Erika! I hope your team gets better."

"I know you will get better. Anyone who is this loyal and passionate about battling, and has made it this far, surely has what it takes to try and challenge the Elite Four."

"That's the eventual plan...along with other things." Eon nuzzled against his hand, content and satisfied with the victory. "We'll be heading out. I need to get Ninko and Eon rested up, then I have to meet with someone outside the city limits."

"Very well. Have a good time!" She waved at him as he began to exit the greenhouse, the Psychic-Type in tow. While the day hadn't been an absolute success, the loss of the morning still stung him and his confidence, now he felt rebuilt with the victory of the late-afternoon.

* * *

"According to my studies..." Eusine laid a large roll of paper on the table, slowly unrolling it. "Suicine is most likely to be in Kanto. If the legends about it's connections with the North Wind are true, we're likely to see it..." He placed his finger on the combined map of the Kanto and Johto regions. "Here, in Vermillion Harbor! And not just that, we should see her tomorrow, late in the afternoon, just a bit before the sun starts setting."

"That's assuming that she'll even still be in Kanto. You yourself said you thought she'd never cross the mountains to come here to Kanto, so you have been wrong."

"Wrong, but I didn't have the data. If I had known you had a fierce battle with her North of Cerulean, I would have been there in an instant! Did she look at all like the legends depict her?"

"Yes. The word of mouth and runes haven't been stretched at all." Kris sat down in the chair, rubbing one of the ends of her hair between her index finger and thumb. "Just like described. Quadreped, Water type. Huge crystal on her forhead with billowing purple 'hair' in contrast to her white and blue fur, ending in forward-facing streamer tails. You should know, we both saw her back at the Burned Tower, and again on Mt. Mortar."

"No, I mean in battle!" The dark-headed blonde remarked, shuffling his feet rapidly in excitement. "Was she as fast and graceful as they say?"

"Fast? Yes. Graceful? I don't know. I was focusing on battling. Even with Megaree trying to help me out, it didn't get me anywhere despite a Water-type's weakness to Grass attacks."

"It must have been beautiful." The male folded his hands up to his chest, collapsing them and getting a 'dreamy' look in his eyes.

"Yeah...No. It was a disaster. We destroyed the forest more then actually damaged her, considering how fast she moves. If we landed two moves, I'd be amazed."

"Really? That sort of evasion just confirms to me that she was destined to be a divine guider of the world."

"Whatever. I don't care for your fantasies and legends about her. I just want to catch her. I'd be the first trainer to ever have a legendary Pokemon!"

"Didn't Red capture the Kanto Legendary Trio; Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno?"

"Pfft. They only say he did. That was in the last few weeks that anyone actually saw him before he went and vanished. The guy was a recluse, never said anything, never showcased his pokemon, nothing. After his Championship, I doubt everything I hear about him. It's unlikely he completed the entire Kanto Pokedex, the data on the rarer and the legendary types must have been guesswork, or compiled by his predecessor Blue. He still holds the record for most different Pokemon, some 170-something. But Red? He's a mute boy that's died and gone onto Legend status, much like the Legendaries we're chasing."

"But...But Legend's aren't a lie. Look at Suicine! And we've seen her ourselves!"

"I never said they were a lie." Kris remarked, sliding her backpack over her back. "But they get stretched out of proportion. There was no North Wind when I was in Cerulean City, just the thick of a Typhoon's dying breaths."

"Very well. I won't be in Vermillion tomorrow, I have duties back in Cianwood City I need to get to tomorrow morning, and I'd much rather take the bullet train."

"It's fine. I'll call you if I see her or battle her." Kris walked over to the door and began to open it up.

"Oh, and Kris, can you give the number of the man you're with?"

"Not hardly. For right now, he's my Boy-Toy, even if he's a stubborn one. Try your luck with another guy." The teal-haired female remarked as she closed the door behind her. "It's still early." She tossed her pokeball into the air, spiking it with her foot as her fiery dog ended up on the ground. "Archie, do you wanna go have some fun?"

"Arc!"


	19. Between Two Cities

Takuya laid the excess money in the hands of the cashier. "Thank you. We hope to see you again next time you pass through here."

"You more then likely will." Takuya commented, looking down at Ninko. "She seemed to enjoy your service and pampering more then anything else." The fire type barked in response. "Eon, Jupiter, let's go." Takuya turned and began to walk on, only to wince a bit. "Perkunas, can you not wrap your back legs around my neck so hard?"

The Pikachu uncrossed his legs, setting one on each of Takuya's shoulders. "Pika-Pi..."

"It's fine. Just not to the point that I'm choking." The electric and psychic-types followed the male out the automatic doors, who followed the shiny Vulpix as she proudly walked, displaying her cleaned and brushed golden fur coat. "You'd almost think Ninko were destined to be a model, not a fighter, by the way she acts."

_Hmph._

"You still don't trust her, do you Eon?"

_She's hard, if not impossible, for me to read even basic vital signs from. Not to mention that as soon as we beat her, she was trying to hypnotize you._

"But she has proven very helpful, you can't argue with that."

_I believe that. But even a helpful friend might turn out not so good in the long run._

"Maybe you're right. But for now, I still think it's best we keep her around." The group of 5 stepped out of the city, catching the eyes of the guards as the large procession walked past them. "So glad that Vermillion is the only city with a limit on publicly exposed Pokemon at a time."

After walking some distance, even out of the city's gates, the male knelt down on the side of the road, sliding his pack off of his arms while the small rodent leapt off of his back. "Ok, we might as well take this time to get some training in. It's not even close to 8 anyways."

"Pikachu!"

"Jupiter, Eon, we'll start with you two. No physical contact, the two of you need to try and land damage on the other as fast as you can. Eon, I need you to focus more on the Swift Strike you showcased earlier, get it ready faster and launched faster."

"Jolt!"

"Both of you, feel free to take cover in the area around us. If you think you can dodge an attack, do it."

The two Eeveelutions stood opposite of each other, their dark eyes starring each-other down. It started faintly, but soon one could see a ring of bright light and matter forming around the Psychic's midsection, spinning rapidly.

In response, the electric Eeveelutions began glowing bright, free electrons gather around the spiky fur, bouncing back and forth rapidly, energy gathering for the attack. Before the the female could finish forming the stars, a burst of electricity crossed the expanse between the two, impacting the psychic with perfect aim.

The lilac-furred female withstood the blast, taking damage but keeping her focus on her own attack. The shape of five-pointed stars began to form, spinning rapidly around her center while she focused on the other Jolteon. As if someone flipped a switch, the four star-shaped bursts of energy launched forward, rushing toward the quadruped.

Rather then just stand there and take the attack, Jupiter jumped to the side, using his vastly superior speed to put distance between himself and the incoming attack. He leapt over a pair of bushes, rapidly changed direction and ran to the right, hiding behind the safety of a tree. While behind it, the male once again began to concentrate his abilities on the electric currents around his body, gather energy for another Thundershock.

The four energy bursts crashes into the tree at that moment, the bark shattering and splintering from the impact of the first two. The second pair continued their path through and impacted Jupiter, cutting his concentration as he was knocked several feet back, landing on his side.

"Good shot Eon, but you took too long to conjure the stars, and made them too full with energy, which is why they moved so slow. Next time, try to make them just a bit smaller so it takes less time, and they'll move faster."

_Right._

Once again, otherworldly energy began spinning around her body in a circular pattern, readying another swift strike against the fellow Eeveelution. Jupiter attempted to charge energy up once again, his body glowing once more.

"Don't be afraid to try something new." Takuya encouraged the speedy electric type. Almost as if the words of motivation gave him an idea, the electric type leapt forward, using his agility to close the gap between himself and the female, who hadn't moved since the battle had started. All the while, the glow around his body continued to brighten, as if the rates of their closing distance and his luminescence was related.

The stars took their solid shape, reaching the zeinth of their rotational velocity. Eon narrowed her eyes, focusing on the electric 'god'.

And the burst of energy was discharged, arcing across the gap and striking the psychic-type. She stumbled, taking significant damage from the closeness of the hit, but kept enough concentration to strike back with her Swift Attack. Due to the lack of distance between the two, the energy blasts didn't have nearly as much time to accelerate, so the impact's violence was considerably lessened. Irregardless, they were powerful enough to knock the male Eeveelution back, landing on his back before rolling onto his side. Heavy breaths released from the electric type into the evening air.

"Jolt...eonnn." The quadruped got up, shaking himself wildly as he stared the psychic-type down. While by no means was Jupiter able to converse with his trainer, Takuya could already see the gears turning in his head. If he couldn't physically attack the opponent, he was going to do the next best thing.

"What are you thinking?"

"Espe-" For the third time, a ring of the Swift stars spun around the younger of the two. Takuya crossed his arms, curious as to what the Electric type was about to let loose. The electric type gritted his teeth, turning his body to the side. "Trying to brace yourself for the impact?" The trainer asked aloud.

Without warning, a set of the spiky fur, which had been bristled for a long time, was violently ejected. Neither trainer nor psychic could believe when they became rapid-fire projectiles, striking the psychic type. She stumbled back, trying to keep focus on the bursts of energy. The instant after the next attack struck the Psychic, a second and third subsequent set of quills launched forward, sticking into her like a row of quills imbedding themselves into the side of the lilac-furred quadruped. With that, she lost her concentration, the attack she had been readying dissipating back into the air.

"Pin Missile! Perfect!"

"Jolt!" The electric type rushed right next to the female, merely a foot away from her. She struggled to get up, the bug-type attack wreaking havoc on the normal harmony of her body. Several more rounds of the attacks impacted the female, causing her to collapse to the ground, defeated.

"Time out!" Takuya shouted. "We've found a new weapon for tomorrow." A satisfied smile stretched across his face. "Eon, how are you holding up?"

She turned her head to face him, gingerly standing back up. _I'll live._

"Come on over." The Espeon began hobbling toward the male as he motioned his hands. Likewise, he moved toward her, pulling the pack off of his back and swinging it around, fumbling with one of the compartments. "I know that it's no PokeCenter, but surely this with some solid rest will be worth something."

After a bit more fumbling, the two met halfway, and he half-tossed the pack to the ground, yanking out a small yellow piece of fruit, which looked abnormally like a pudgy pear. "Don't freak. The store in Celadon was overflowing with this stuff. You'd almost think they couldn't get rid of the fruit fast enough." He held it out toward her, and she bent down, grasping it inside of her small mouth.

_Thank you._

"What kind of trainer would I be if I didn't ensure good conditions for my team?" His head turned toward the quadreped electric type. "Jupiter, any damage?"

The response was minimal, almost as if he didn't see any need to make a fuss.

"Yeah, you think you're such a badass, that you don't need any health." Takuya smirked.

* * *

"Ninko, get behind him and lower his defenses! Perkunas, make sure she doesn't get behind you."

The small golden kitsune leapt toward the Pikachu, who tried to leap back in response to the rapidly closing fire-type. She landed beside him, giving him a brief eye-to-eye stare before spinning around on her front legs, whipping him with her tail. The Pikachu was knocked onto the ground.

The difficulty of commanding both fights of a battle was the innate complexity. He knew all the strengths, weaknesses, strategies, types, etc. Every command issued from his mouth had days worth of planning crammed into a few short moments of intense thought, then those very thoughts had to be torn apart just as quickly so the opposing side could make up for it. Even the best chess player would likely find himself running in circles if fighting himself. "Make sure you don't let her get a leg up on you! Ninko, make sure he can't counter whatever attack you have."

The pikachu swiped at the Kitsune with it's tail, forcing the female to retreat several steps. As she did so, another round of flames welled up within her body, readying another burst of fire. The yellow mouse-like Pokemon took several bounds to the side, charging his cheeks full of electricity. The two released their attack's simultaneously, and Ninko took several steps backwards, shuddering as the effects of the electricity dulled her nervous system.

She finally recovered a bit, before releasing a stream of fire from her mouth. It didn't directly impact the Pikachu, but he took damage none the less as the near-invisible chemically based fire began to wreak havoc on his body.

"She's trying to tire you out by whittling away at your health! Get back at her with whatever you can, and make it quick!"

The mouse-like Pokemon rushed back at her, striking her full-force before she even realized what happened. The female spiraled backwards, trying to recover from the physically demanding hit. Her cunning eyes took another glance at the opposition, who's cheeks sparkled in preparation of another burst of electricity.

Takuya thought hard. As they were standing right now, Ninko was inflicting more long-term damage, while Perkunas much rather preferred to hit with a solidly large blow. Since Jupiter's Pin Missile could only carry him so far, he'd have to fall back on one of the other three fighters for sure. The question was, which one's personal strategy and moveset would prove more effective in battle?

Perkunas slammed his tail into the golden shiny once again, and before she could recover he rushed her once more, slamming his entire body into her and violently knocking her onto her side. His exhausted eyes looked her over as she heaved, trying to regain her breath after a critically damaging hit.

"Pika!" Despite his injuries and lack of energy, he still sounded as excited and energetic as ever.

"Good job Perkunas!" He commented as he wearily turned around and began to stagger toward the trainer. The entire time, he was unaware of the female he wrote off as defeated, as she slowly stood back up, flames welling up inside of her mouth.

"Behind you!"

Just as he began to turn around, the electric-type was hit by a barrage of flames by the fox-like Pokemon. That finished him off, and with several burns decorating his body, he collapsed to the ground, utterly defeated.

"..." To say that Takuya was impressed was an understatement. He had pretty much wrote the female off as defeated, but she still had whatever left to finish the battle. "I hope we don't have to worry about Sabrina doing that." He dully commented. He slung his pack off of his back again, digging into it so as to find something to repair their wounds.

Jupiter snorted in the distance, laying on the ground not to far away. "Hey, you were that low in power once also. Don't forget that." Takuya commented over his shoulder to his 'starter'. "Besides, I'm sure they'll eventually reach your level in power again in time. Especially if we keep running and fighting every single trainer we meet, and attack any wild pokemon we see."

The results were already starting to show. Granted, he had not encountered any wild pokemon on the small route between the two large cities, and he hadn't run into any sort of trainer willing to battle on the pathway either. But with the brief sparring sessions his team had done, that alone was enough evidence. While breaking one of the blue fruits known as a Rawst berry, the male scanned the surroundings. The grass that Perkunas and Ninko had been aggressively sparring on was torched in multiple areas, leaving the moderately-heavy smell of smoke thick in the air. One tree had been split through the middle due to Eon's Swift-strike, leaving a 'stump' about two feet high jutting out of the ground with a violent cut gracing it. A second one was damaged badly through the center, a hole cleaved through it thick enough for Takuya to make a climb through it, that is, if he had the urge to cover himself and his jacket in splinters.

"Pika...?" The dazed electric-type looked at the trainer with confusion, only somewhat conscious and unsure of how to process what was currently taking place.

"Don't you worry. What kind of trainer would I be if I didn't try to manually heal my team here and again?" He remarked. After smashing the fruit in his hands and rolling the pulp and juices between his hands, he proceeded to gently rub it into several of the burned sections of fur on the Pikachu's fur and skin beneath it.

* * *

The group moved through the forest lining the sides of the trail. The sun's rays had near completely vanished, allowing the chill of the night to slowly chip away at the warmth of the summer day. It was a noisy point in time within the thick woods, with varying night favoring Pokemon beginning to make their presence known.

Takuya parted one of the taller bushes, scanning what was likely their campgrounds, taking a step into the location. She already had rolled out her sleeping bag, along with a lantern that was dimly lit, and a rope holding her backpack several feet off the ground while hanging from a tree. "Finally." He whispered for a brief moment, only for his relief to be tossed aside by shock.

"OH Acreus...Give me that thick, rich cock! Push it all the way into my degenerate pussy! Come on Archie!" Her voice wildly swung between whisper and earth-muffled shout, not finding any harmony in between.

The statement alone was enough to express what was going on. Not more then 5 feet away from the group, Kris could be seen on all fours, her knees and palms ground into the dirt. Her shirt had been hastily pushed all the way up, exposing the back-strap of her barzier which had been pushed down toward her waist in contrast. The pants and white lab-coat she normally wore were both tossed to the side, leaving her utterly uncovered below the waist.

Atop of her was her orange fire-type. The Arcanine has his front paws firmly atop of her back, pressing her face-first into the ground, and it looked like he wasn't letting her up anytime soon. While their backs were to the group, they could tell by his labored pants that his actions were starting to tire him out from the panting he was doing. The rest of his body was positioned behind her posterior, firmly pushing forward at a rapid rate. More then likely, he was pressing his 'thick, rich cock' into her 'degenerate pussy', mating with her as if nature commanded it.

Takuya watched the scene unfold for several moments, attempting to process the implications. For one, this confirmed first-hand that Humans and Pokemon, at least some types, must be compatible for intercourse, thought not likely for offspring production. In addition, Kris was even more loose then he had thought, making him feel a bit more uncomfortable. He didn't exactly feel disgusted, the idea of a human and pokemon coupling was fine by him in both parties were consenting on their own free will. But for respect and personal embarrassment, he retreated to the other side of the bushes. "We shouldn't have came early."

The scene had no noticeable effect on Perkunas, who still was on Takuya's shoulders in a place similar to Eon's location before she had evolved. Jupiter's reaction was a light growl, but like his trainer, he pulled back. Rather it was from distaste or a feeling of aggression and a need to assert himself as a dominant male was unclear to Takuya, so the trainer didn't bother pressing the issue.

Eon was merely intrigued, stunned that the situation could happen but interested in what other strange couplings could occur. She proceeded to looked at the entire group, especially Takuya, gauging their reaction. But when her focused landed on the shiny Vulpix, her reaction was the easiest to read. A dark smile, as unlikely as it would seem to come from a Pokemon, had graced the fire-type's features, and Eon's could actually sense a powerful aura of selfish intent from the fox-like Pokemon.

"Just...leave them be for now. We should respect their privacy." Takuya remarked, trying to sound and act cool and collected even though he sounded more like he had been shocked. "Let's go for another walk."

Their walk had ended up taking nearly 45 minutes, and Takuya took the chance to battle his team members against various wild pokemon that sprung out of the thick grass and trees above so his team could earn some more battle experience. All the while he tried the best he could to adjust to the awkward situation, not having issues coming to terms with it's existence as much as he was going to have a problem with talking to her without having the image of her bent on the ground and getting fucked by her Fire-Type coming to his mind.

"Why the hell have you been traipsing around out here Takuya?" Kris' voice called.

"I had been training." The male skirted the truth "I figured that I could level up my team while waiting to run back into you."

"Surely you had some success with THIS badge?"

"Indeed I did."

"Good." The teal-haired female walked closer to the male, adjusting her lab-coat. "In the morning, I'll get up early and take care of Celadon's Gym. When I get done there, we'll head back to Saffron, you'll earn that gym badge then, and then we can head south to Vermillion."

"Why Vermillion?"

"Of course I want to see my business partner's hometown!" She remarked, wrapping her arms around his left arm and leaning against him., utterly ignoring his groan. "I know I've already gotten that badge, but it would be a monumental experience to see it from your eyes, all the sights and smells."

"Fair point. I thought we'd go our separate ways at Vermillion though...Wait..." He thought for a second. "I don't want to bring you home to my parents and family friends!"

"Why not?"

"Well, your loose..."

"Oh really. As long as that topic doesn't come up, we'll be fine. Look, we are just business partners, Ok?" She separated from him and led him back to the campsite that he already knew about. "Come on. I want to be up extra-early in the morning, so give me a run-down on the battle so I have some sort of strategy in mind."

After the exchange of battle tactics, to which Kris seemed very confident that Archie and Little Miss could make serious headway in the battle, their conversation was minimal at best, neither of them engaging in conversation.

"Kris, before you hit the sack, what is it that you and that Eugene guy?"

"Eusine?"

"Yeah. What were you and him going over?"

"Tell you what, if everything works out tomorrow, I'll show you." She remarked, collapsing atop of her bag.

"I'll hold you to that then." Takuya stated, rolling onto his stomach and closing his eyes, blocking out the nightlight.


	20. Abusing the Cross-Typing

"What do you mean she already left?"

_She was leaving when I woke up._

Takuya sighed, running his hand through his hair. "Very well. I guess we head back to Saffron City." He proceeded to roll up his sleeping bag and slide it into the large pack he had. "Eon, you said we would talk later. What exactly do you want to get at?"

She raised her head off of the stump she was sitting on, looking at him with her dark eyes. _I didn't expect you to bring that up._

"I've been thinking about what you did say...or at least-" He gave the pack a very harsh pull, zipping the insides together. "-at least been trying to. Alot has been on my mind lately. From what you said, to the gym battles, to Kris and her deranged moral standards. I need to get some of it off of my chest before I try battling again. That way I can focus."

_I don't think Focusing alone will help you in the battlefield. At least, not when we go back against the Psychic-Types._

"You said I was scared of something more powerful coming and resolving something. And while I hate to admit it, your right." He looked away from the lilac-furred creature for a bit, starring at the trees. "It was less then a year after the war ended, at least, according to the dates. I was only about 3 or 4, maybe 5. Our hometown, Vermillion City, wasn't always that clean. But after two failed ground invasions there along with raids and riots, the city's sewage and water-systems had became polluted. I don't remember much of it, a lot of it comes only from history textbooks, memorials, and newspaper article clippings." He sighed. "I do recall this though. I was sitting ontop of a car, I doubt it was a car my parents had, they never mentioned owning any vehicles. But I couldn't see the road, or any of the yards. Trees and the tops of some cars were the only thing that stuck above all of the toxic sludge, and most of those had even caught fire or were slowly washed away. The pollution had spiraled to the point that Grimer and Muk, two pokemon that thrive in polluted areas, had left the sewers en-mass and they covered the streets." The male stood up, brushing some excess dust off of his legs. "I don't remember seeing any dead bodies of people or pokemon, but I do remember the screams."

_How does that-_

"Since I was born, my parents claim to have taught me to love and cherish life of all types. Human and Pokemon, and to respect nature and respect authority. I don't know if I took their words to heart when I was young, my memory isn't that clear. I do know this though. I had saw, first hand, some of the Pokemon that I was supposed to love turn against humanity. And en-mass, they were powerful. But that wasn't the kicker, not hardly. Because it was after the excess Grimer and Muk had been killed the worst came about."

A moment of silence. "It was the f*cking police. I'm not just talking about the porn-star dressed Officer Jenny. No, I'm talking about the entire police force, along with what was probably the military. In the reports, the city went under Martial Law, but I didn't know that. All I knew was that my parents were missing, and I saw men and women with guns using the guns and using their pokemon to push people around, throwing them to the ground, kicking them, shooting anyone who looked too badly injured, and burning the evidence. Friends my father had, the few that had survived the war with him, reverted back into the animals that mankind becomes in war, in a time when life needed compassion."

_So you realized then that you hated anything with authority or power?_

"It wasn't then. Sure, that set me on the course. I became distrustful of the police, and of some pokemon. Only because of my parent's jobs did I ever start to reconcile with Pokemon, knowing that for 'primitive' pokemon like Muk..." Using his fingers, he made air-quotation marks around the word 'primitive' "...they were just doing what was natural. But the police, and anyone with authority I am distrustful of. Sure, I trust Gym Leaders to a slightly larger extent. Surge is great friends with my folks, hell, he said he wanted to take me on as an assistant if my travels fell through. But that's beside the point."

There was another moment of silence.

"Those in authority, the ones with power, keep us in check and keep us from doing anything wrong. At least, they should. I'm not going to get into how ineffective the Elite 4 was in combating Team Rocket or aiding Vermillion during that crisis. But when you have that kind of power, who keeps you in check? Nothing." He turned and looked at the Espeon again. "I don't want to hand over my mind and let something else take control. Because when one gets control, it's easy to run amuk..." He stopped for just a second, realizing what he said. "Pun not intended. But it becomes easy to let the power get to your head, and you can overstep the boundaries without worrying about anything. It could be intentional or accidental."

_So you don't trust me, and you know you don't trust me?_

"I trust you, I just don't want to be put into that situation."

_While out here, we've all been in situations we don't like. I don't like having to battle someone that has no motivation other then monetary gain, and I can start to feel the thoughts of others now without trying to. It disgusts me, knowing that I'm just contributing to their thrill and love for money. And I distrust the ktisune, but I'll work with her if needed. We all have to do things that we don't like, and makes us very uncomfortable on this road. It's not like a game, where you can quit anytime, and just get powerful by grinding._

"I'm not going to have a choice, am I?"

_I won't force myself into your mind without your consent. That said, we'll probably be here for years and years without any more progress otherwise._

"How do I know you won't force yourself into my mind, and destroying it? There's nothing to stop you..."

_Think. What stops Jupiter or Perkunas from electrocuting you to death? What stops the Vulpix from just burning you alive and leaving for someone else. It's respect and love, all on different levels. Any living, thinking being can control itself if it chooses to. Having power is not going to make us all into degenerate criminals. I'm disappointed that you didn't realize that yourself, living with your parents in a solid environment and traveling with us for the time we have._

"It's just...Something I hold myself to."

_What did you think of the incident you saw last night? With Kris?_

"It was more shocking then anything else. I mean, I shouldn't have been shocked, but I was. What does that deal with what we are talking about?"

_Despite what you may think of her, she showed that she is willing to trust us, and trust her own team to understand limitations. You can do the same._

There was a moment of silence, in which time Eon took the moment to jump off of the stump and walk up to Takuya. "You're right...I just...AHHH!" Takuya leaped back in shock, looking down at the female Eeveelotuion. "What the hell did you do that for!?"

_I sense that you still don't trust me. Let me prove myself to you._ She stepped forward toward him once more, rubbing her head against his waist and crotch.

"That's for-"

_You let Kris take advantage, and that didn't even benefit you in any way. Don't hold me to a double-standard._

She proceeded to rub her face repeatedly along that region of his body, before biting down on the linking sections of the jeans and giving it a light pull. While his belt was still together and kept his pants up, she took the moment to nip at where his rising manhood should be.

"This is...wrong..."

_You yourself have said you see no issue with this. Let me Prove myself._

The male started to reach down to push her back physically, only to be met with her eyes as she looked back at him. _Do you really want to?_ Was the only response, as she proceeded to continually nuzzle the rising section within his pants. As she didn't have the usefulness of hands, her abilities were mostly limited to just her mouth, as she awkwardly and painstakingly undid his belt over the course of several agonizing moments.

"Danm my masculinity..." He remarked to himself. "Fine. If you insist on doing this..." The male looked at the wooded surroundings for several seconds, shrugging his jean jacket off in the meantime. He followed that up with pulling his shirt off, tossing it aside. "I'm going to danm well enjoy myself." He hastily bent down, pushing his pants and boxers down before kicking them also, leaving him in the nude.

The male squatted down, making eye contact with the psychic-type. She leaned forward, pushing her forehead against his. They stayed that way for several minutes, until she gave an extra push and knocked him onto his back. His hands flailed about as he landed on his back, and she proceeded to on his legs toward him, before leaning down and drawing her visible attention to his erect phallus. Her mouth opened up, and she gently took the head of it between her jaws, never breaking eye-contact with the trainer the entire time.

"Mmmmph..." Takuya threw his head back, relishing the situation despite the strangeness of it. He could feel her teeth slowly rub the sides of his member, a sensation he couldn't compare anything else to. However, the sensation of her slowly wrapping her tongue around the top of his penis did strike a memory of Kris for the moment.

_She has nothing to do with this._ Eon pressed that thought into his mind for a second, before advancing her technique. The quadruped's jaws tightly gripped him, and she pushed down, taking as much of him within her oral cavern as she could. About three-quarters of the way down she stopped, before pulling back, letting go completely before rapidly pushing it back inside of her skull again, using the sudden contrast to 'shock' him in a sense. After a few repetitions of this, she pulled her mouth back up to the top, but rather then let go, her head went back down with the same speed and increased aggression.

Takuya looked at the lilac-furred pokemon once more, watching her customized 'blowjob' as she continued to impale her skull on his masculinity. His hands gripped the grass beneath him as he tried dealing with the sensation, trying to deal with the rapid face-fuck. Surprise racked his mind as she let him go one more time before licking his testacular sac and phallus once more before going back and orally mounting him again, earning a sensation-filled groan.

"Eonnnnn, oh fuckkkk..."

The female's ears twitched at that moment. At this point she let go of his cock, uneasily walking farther up his body until she was in the place she wanted. _I'm waiting..._

He opened his eyes, watching as she pressed her front paws solidly on his sternum, the psychic's vagina located just above his horrent maculinity while she continued to look down on him. "Very well..." He reached down, lightly gripping her rear hips and holding her in place as he rose the center and lower sections of his body, letting him push himself against her swollen nether lips. "E...on!" His grunts were in rough sync with his steady push up between her walls into her tight cavern.

"Espeeee-ON!" She slammed her body down atop of his member once more, somehow plugging his entire length deep into her. Her focus went to the hands on her hips, and as they began to pull up, she complied, letting her lower body be raised until she choose to slam herself back down atop of him. Hoping to fix her awkward positioning, she pulled her upper-body back just a bit, putting her in a sitting-position that gave her a solid stance.

Takuya subconsciously pulled her up again, and before she went down herself, his hands slammed her down in sync with his upward thrust. "ON!" While she rarely used her vocal cords, her excited-sounding squeals added an extra charm to the cross-species mating process. Again his hilt was thrust all the way up into her, letting him feel the tight vice-grip her velvety pussy felt around him. In a passing though he wondered how she could be so tight on the inside while so smooth and flexible on the outside, only for her to rise up again and subsequently slam down right afterwards.

"AH! Eon...That's just..."

"Espe! Espe! Es...pe ON!" A more solid thrust by both of them caused her to slip a bit, her legs scattering for a second before regaining position.

"That's it, I'm going to c-"

_Now!_

The shouted command was easily enough to get him going, and he pushed all the way up into her as fast as he could, her uber-tight walls lengthening his climax as he spurted his essence up into her feminine caverns. She mewed unlike any other sound made before, and through the haze induced from his ejaculation the feeling of her thin, runny liquids covering his rod added to his bliss.

The male laid on the ground several seconds, still inside of her as he enjoyed the sensations. _You realize...I could kill you right now without a second thought._ Eon slowly slid forward, her legs outstretched to his shoulders and hanging over them, while her underside rested on his stomach and chest. She looked right at him, anticipating a response. _But I would never, ever strike against you unless you demanded it._

Through the post-coital high he was able to comprehend her words. "You're right...Thanks...for everything, as cliché as that may sound."

_I want to try something else first._

Takuya winced a bit.

_Let's go. We have a badge to earn._

* * *

"I'm back, and ready to take you on!"

Sabrina gazed across the dark battlefield. "Go home, little boy. It's only been a day and you think you can change your fate?"

Takuya smirked. "24 hours is a long time, and I have a few extra...tricks...up my sleeve if you know what I mean."

The woman stood motionless. "Are you going to go, or should I?" His voice called across the dark room. She shook her head, grabbing one of the balls on her hips. "Alakazam, Go Forth!"

A wave of deja-vu overcame the male as he saw the opponent appear once more infront of him. He looked beside him, down to Eon who stood at his side. Her gaze met with his, and they briefly nodded at each-other for a second. "Eon, stand back. Jupiter, Come Forth!"

"Two Pokemon at once? That's not hardly legal..."

"Eon won't be fighting in the slightest." Takuya cut her off. "You could say that she's...curious as to how fellow psychic types work, and who am I to deny her? Now, are we going to battle, or not?"

Sabrina looked at the electric Eeveelution, narrowing her eyes. What game was he getting at? "Very well. Let us."

"Jupiter, hit him fast with a Pin Missle!"

Her eyes widened in shock at the turn. That was a bug-type move, there is NO way he should be able to do that. "Alakazam, Pyschic!"

Jupiter jumped close to the opponent, growling in anticipation and launching several quills in the face of the spoon-holding psychic type. Sabrina's first choice held his hands up in automatic defense, but they sunk into his skin quickly. The electric-type continued using his cross-type moves, jumping to his other side and launching another set of sharp quills, before ending with a third set right in the center of it's face.

Takuya winced, the weight of psychic pressure pushing down on him again. "Eon..."

_I've got it._ While he still struggled to stand straight, he was able to focus on the battle as the mental-burden was 'shared'. He could feel the...intrusive...presence in his mind, for lack of a better term, but unlike the weight that had made him faint before, it felt like something was lightly caressing his mind and thoughts. Drawing his attention away from the mental-side of things, he watched as Jupiter was hit by a burst of translucent blue waves from the opponent. The quadreped stumbled backwards, shaking off the blow as quickly as he could, readying for another strike.

"Jupiter, Pin Missile! We're going to spam this technique to death!"

"Alakazam, use Future Sight!" The psychic type closed it's eyes, focusing on the opponent to the best of it's ability with the multitude of quills imbedding themselves within the opponent. Shortly after it's time-capsuled attack was prepared, the increased damage from the repetitive bug-type attack took it's toll, and Alakazam collapsed to the ground, rendered unconscious.

"Impressive. You somehow managed to teach your electric-type a bug-move. But I doubt he'll last long enough to take care of this..." The woman grabbed a second ball, tossing it up into the air and releasing a familiar creature.

"It's like looking in a mirror almost..." Takuya remarked, simultaneously with Eon's own thought patterns.

"Espeon, use Quick Attack!"

"Jupiter, Dodge and Use Pin-Missle one more time!"

The electric-type leapt to the side, only for the lilac-covered opponent to rush him. Jupiter leapt backwards, and was force to take additional evasive maneuvers to dodge it's fellow Eeveelution. It quickly devolved into a back-and-forth chase between the two.

"Jupiter, stop and ready!" He quickly complied, sliding to a stop with his left side exposed to the rushing psychic-type.

Sabrina immediately recognized the situation. "Espeon, abort the attack! Switch to Psychic!"

"Jupiter, jump to the side and unleash!"

The psychic-type turned to try and slide to a stop, only to be slammed three times with sharp quills from the electric-type at close range. She fell to the ground, skidding across the floor.

"Espeon..."

"Hah! Critical Hit AND type advantage!" Takuya gloated. "Now that's super effective, especially against living things!" He could faintly hear a grunt from the other side of the battlefield, it was likely that Sabrina was starting to lose her cool.

"Could the future I saw...been wrong? Mimey, your up!"

Despite the slowly growing headache, Takuya fought back a chuckle as the clown-like Pokemon was brought onto the battlefield. "Jupiter, return. Perkunas, you're up!"

"Throw up a barrier!"

"Perkunas, Tail-Whip it back! We can't let it get too heavily fortified!"

The barrier raised by the mime was quickly dented by the pointed tail that the Pikachu possessed. The impact was enough to force her back while the yellow and red pokemon landed on all fours, an intense stare on it's face.

"Good! Now, follow up with a Thundershock!"

"Mimey, Dodge it and use Psychic!"

The bolt of electricity sent from the electric mouse made contact, but was cut short as it fell to the floor, struggling to stand. "Fight it and focus!" Despite the calls of it's trainer, the psychic attack was too much for him, and he collapsed, knocked out of the battle.

"Danm it..." Takuya briefly massaged his temples, the headache that was likely caused by Sabrina now starting to crush his well-weaved strategy he had going into the battle. "Ninko, You're up!"

_I can't hold on any more. I'm sorry._

"I'll take it from here then!" Takuya shouted out, pulling the last pokeball and recalling Eon. "Ninko, hit him...or her...with an ember!"

The golden fox looked over it's shoulder at the trainer, then flipped the fur atop of it's head and charged forward. "Ninko...NINKO WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?" And with that, a powerful weight crashed onto his head and Takuya fell to all fours again, the edges of his vision becoming blurry once more. "Danm it..."

A flash of light went off, and the male looked up to see a bright purple ball of light cross the battlefield before vanishing. "Vullll."

The headache briefly broke, giving him a chance to look at his fire-type. "What in the hell did you just...?"

"Mimey, shake it off and hit it with a Psychic!" Sabrina remarked, shaking her head back and forth to try and get rid of the confusion.

The multi-tailed fox leapt to the side, trying to avoid a blast shot by the humanoid pokemon. As if someone snapped their fingers, it clicked with Takuya, as through the crushing headache he recalled stats on a Vulpix that he had looked up in Lavender Town. She had likely confused the opponent with the ghost-type attack, Confuse Ray! It was a super-effective attack...and it would leave the Mime open for attack! "Ninko, good...set up. Ember it now!"

The shiny reared back, building the fire inside of it's body before spraying it at the psychic-type. The defender didn't have a chance at dodging the incoming blast, ensuing that he was covered with the ensuing flames. "Mimey! Throw up another barrier!"

"Ninko...gah!" The mental weight pressed down onto him once more. "Just dodge!"

The shiny Vulpix looked over it's shoulder, casting a glance at it's owner and sitting right where it was. Her opponent waved her hands in the air, trying to pull another barrier up. As if someone flipped a switch, the barrier suddenly collapsed, and the Mime fell onto her back, knocked out. The six-tailed fox looked over it's shoulder one more time, a haughty look gracing it's features. It's opponent was out cold on the floor, having hurt itself in it's confusion.

"I get it now." Sabrina's stern, feminine voice carried across the gym. "I underestimated your determination. I put to much faith in my visions of the future the first time and then underestimated you the second."

Takuya begin to stand up, the weight on his head finally lifting. "One question, actually, two. What happened last time, and why must you rape my living mind!?"

"Whenever a trainer fails, I spare them the humiliation and have them carried out of the city. You passed out, so you wouldn't remember it. I exert pressure on the trainer because what good is a group of strong pokemon if their trainer can't lead by example and overcome their own obstacles?" She folded her arms. "I suppose you've earned the Marsh Badge." With her last pokeball she recalled the 'Mr' Mime and reached into a pocket, pulling out the small token.

Takuya stepped forward, his feet uneasy as he continued to cope with the effects of the battle on his end. He held his hand out, eager to accept what would be his fourth badge.

"I know why you really kept your Espeon out, yet separate from the battlefield. The two of you tried splitting the mental load." Her face narrowed and the fist that was holding the token clinched. "Realistically, that should be illegal, as you would have been using two pokemon at once. But because it's not a technical issue, as she never attacked or was attacked. Because it was a clever strategy, and not necessarily because you won, I feel that I must give you the Marsh Badge." Her tightened fist opened, and the yellow token dropped into Takuya's hands. "I'm amazed you even let a member of your team into your mind."

"Thanks...but next time we meet, if we do meet again, can you not press into my mind? It's private."

"..."

* * *

"I've been waiting hours for you to get out of there!" Kris shouted, wrapping her arms around the male as he stepped out the front door of the gym. "What took you so bloody long?"

"There's no way it has been hours. The battle only started some 20 minutes ago."

"Okay, fine, maybe I exaggerated a little. But you got it, didn't you!?" Takuya folded the left side of his jacket back, exposing the circle-atop-a-circle badge from Saffron complimenting the three prior badges. "Yes! Now we can continue without having to worry about coming to a needless stand-still!"

"Next stop, Vermillion. It's been two weeks. I'm ready to head home."

"Who said we were going to Vermillion!?"

"I said your free to go wherever you want. I'm heading to Vermillion. Lt Surge has an electric-type badge waiting just for me."

"But I only have three more gyms to go through and-Yeah, tell you what, let's head to your hometown then."

Takuya suddenly realized the implications. "You can seriously head out on your own if you want..."

"Oh nononononono. I've not been advertised for yet, and besides, when I came here to Kanto, I had to fly so quickly to get to Prof. Oak's place, I ONLY had time to battle Lt Surge for the electric-type badge. I didn't get to look around or anything."

"Seriously, leave on your own. I don't want my parents knowing I hang out with a girl as loose as you!"

"OH relax. That's not a topic that will come up at the dinner table. I don't understand why you are SO uptight!" Kris slung her pack over her shoulder, walking toward the southern exit of the city. "Besides, if we get there early enough before dusk, I might have something special to show you."

"If it-"

"It's about what Eusine and I had been talking about yesterday."

"I see...Speaking of which..." Takuya decided to flip the subject. "How was it in the Celadon Gym?"

"Oh, it was perfect. The girls were so nice and the Gym-Leader, Erika, eats the best pussy-"

"Kris, I meant the battle...wait...what the hell do you mean by..."

"What, are you saying that they DIDN'T treat you to a large all-female orgy after the battle?"

"Wait...your dead serious. They DID treat you to a large all-female orgy after the battle!?"

The two teenagers stopped in the middle of the street, a slightly jealous and embarrassed look in Takuya's eyes, while Kris's seemed to devilishly narrow. "Maybe they just don't take boys? I mean, look at it. They're all female, all of their pokemon are female. Hell, even the design of the gym is roughly in the shape of the female gender symbol! Now that I think of it, it's not much of a surprise they got me undressed and started eating me out so quickly..."

"Whatever. The battle, how did the battle go for you? Leave me out of your Sexual Escapades."

"Archie, Little Miss, and Bonee took care of it like it was nothing. It wasn't the easiest battle I've had, but it was one of the easier ones. Besides, what did you do differently today here that you didn't do 24 hours ago?"

The male smiled a bit. "I choose to trust my Pokemon."

Kris gasped. "Oh...I know that type of smile anywhere."

His blue eyes looked at her in confusion. "What?"

"I get it now. While I was off having the best lay of my life, you must of gotten down and dirty with your own team! How sweet! Was it your Espeon, or that hot and shiny Vulpix!? I bet they've both been dying to get that thick meaty-"

Takuya stopped just outside of the Pokemon Center, blankly starring at the woman. "Did Silver damage you in the head? Really, did he f*cking damage you!? First of all, your talking about sex and things of a sexual nature...IN BROAD F*NG DAYLIGHT!" He tossed his arms up in the air, waving them around as if to motion to the people within the city. "Secondly, why the heck did you jump to THAT conclusion!? I said I choose to trust my Pokemon!"

"Gold."

A brief stammering came from his mouth. "What does Ninko's fur have to do with any of this?"

Kris chuckled, slapping the male on the shoulder. "No you silly boy. Gold. My boyfriend from New Bark Town...ex-boyfriend...fuck buddies...damn it, I don't remember what our relationship was like when he left to study under Mr. Pokemon for 6 months. But he mimicked that exact same look when Archie and I consummated our bond as trainer and pokemon! He said I had THAT LOOK on my face..."

He just stared at her. "Earth to Takuya, come in Takuya."

"Oh, I read you alright. I'm just amazed that you feel that even talking about Pokephilia in the middle of a city, in a time that such a topic is very hush-hush 'kept in the closet', is perfectly fine, safe, and will carry no negative repercussions!"

Kris folded her arms, looking at the man with a smug look on her face. "I live my life by my rules, not the ones done by society...except for the 6-pokeball on hand at a time rule. Keeps things SO simple!"

Takuya leaned forward a bit, still not adjusted to her sheer blunt statements in public, said so casually or jokingly despite the fact that this is a situation one doesn't talk about with others. Just to antagonize him, the female leaned forward to him, keeping about two inches distance between their faces, her eyes unblinking as she starred back at him.

"Hey Takuya...Kris."

The two broke their stare-down to see, of all people, their prior host slowly traipsing down the street, his Umbreon following behind him. "I thought you two would be gone already."

"What..."

"Before you ask, I'm leaving Saffron. My wife is filling for divorce, and wants to take custody of my child." Takuya turned and glared at Kris. "It's not because of her only. Our marriage has drifted apart in the last few years. She doesn't seem supportive of me, my likes, heck, not even how I want to raise our child. Not just that, she doesn't even look forward to seeing me come home like she did when we first married. I'm actually amazed she waited this long."

"Kris broke the Camel's back."

"I guess so. Either that, or she thought that me bringing in trainers was a bad example to our child." He slowly rubbed his eyes. "I'll be heading to Vermillion City, I heard business is really picking up there with the trade embargo lifted, so I might be able to find a Guard Job there."

"Huh?" Both trainers looked at each-other in confusion. "Which embargo?"

"You know how Kanto, Sevii, and Johto only started trading information, goods, and Pokemon about two and a half years ago, shortly after the Champion went missing? Yeah, well, these regions have just lifted their trade embargo on Pokemon with Sinnoh and Honnen, and have lifted the information and goods embargo with foreign regions. Almia, Fiore, Kalos, Unova, Guyana, Orre, heck, even the Minnesota Vikings are looking to show up!" The man just got more and more excited as the conversation went on. "If I do good enough, I might get enough money to fight for partial custody rights for my son!"

"Oh..." Kris smirked, looking into the sky. "When was this embargo lifted?"

"Just yesterday, it was reported not long after you guys left. The first passenger ships landed in Vermillion just last night. I hear trainers from all over the world, even as far as China, South America, and other places, decided to show up and be some of the first here!"

"Wow...this blows the whole game of strategy and team building open now." The younger male remarked.

* * *

And with that, the Saffron Arc comes to a conclusion. Now the World Statement arc begins.

I told you there would be eventual pokephilia. Well, you've got it, and don't worry, there will be more as this goes on. You must remember though, this is a plot and character driven story though. Sexual content is taking a backseat after this chapter.


	21. A Foreigner's Victory

First OC submission goes in this chapter. Granted, it's a bit unfair that a submission by a good personal friend of mine ends up ahead of anyone else's, however, She was the one that gave the courage to start this story and continue it after I lost inspiration around chapter 6.

* * *

"Surely your parents, at least one of them, will have a full list rundown and ready, right!?"

"I'd have no idea." Takuya commented back, making a quick sprint through the forest with the teal-haired female and her Arcanine running behind him. "But I know this much. With that many people shipping in, there is likely to be a shortage of time to battle Surge. I'm going to need to get ahead of everyone else! His duties as a Gym Leader come before personal relations."

"What?" Kris skidded to a stop. "What do you mean, personal relations? You KNOW Lt. Surge?"

"Yeah...I mean, sure, him and Dad started the war off on different sides, but after some of the American Regions allied with Kanto, well, they became friends pretty quickly." Takuya came to a stop, gasping for air. "It's only natural that I and my Mother would end up in on their friendship. Heck, he offered me to be an assistant if I was willing to raise a Pikachu alongside Jupiter and Eon...which now that I think of it...I did end up doing that..."

Kris' jaw hung open. "WHY did you never tell me this stuff?" He started to open his mouth in response, but closed it shortly afterwards, trying to think of an adequate response. "You know what, Never mind. I don't think it would have benefited me anyways. Let's get to Vermillion, get a vlog uploaded with me in it, let me see if I can find her, and then you can met up with your family friend." Kris began running forward again, startling Takuya and her Archie at her sudden burst of speed.

"Arc!"

"What he said! Wait up Kris!"

Many people seemed to be on Route 6 today, more then what Takuya felt comfortable with. Since the paths and routes had been barren of people other then trainers for a long time, his gut feeling told him that they all had so much information he needed to take advantage of.

"Watch it, Bitch!"

"Well excuse me! You were the one just standing in the middle of the road!"

Takuya slid to a stop, looking at the situation that had just formed around him. "Kris, we don't have time."

"Get out of here bitch!"

"Stop calling me a bitch, Bitch!" Kris snapped back, ignoring her traveling companion and pointing at the yellow-skinned woman.

"I feel terrible for your Legendary Dog. So badly mistreated by your blind and hasty ways." The woman made a fake pouting face, which clashed badly with her leather pants and white T-Shirt.

"Excuse me! Archie is by far my most reliable battler, and that's saying something with an entire team!"

"Kris, seriously, we do NOT have this kind of time!" Takuya put his hand on Kris' shoulder, but she crudely shrugged him off.

"Leave me alone Tak. I'm going to teach this foreigner a lesson or two..."

"It's a battle you want? It's a battle you'll get!" The female reached behind her head, tightening the bob in her hair with the right hand. "Liquid, come forth!" She commanded, and a large fog-like cloud seemed to excrete itself from her body, gathering together on the dusty trail. As the substance began to gather together, the female dropped a stone on the ground, having seemingly pulled it out from her hair.

"Liquid? Like Snake?" The male's eyebrows raised, his curiosity piqued by the strange name, while also hopeful about learning new battle strategies.

The revealed pokemon satisfied their curiosity for new pokemon. The creature's body was akin to a cone, with the base looking like that of a Trapezoid. That was it for the physical body. The rest of it was like a giant ball of fog, pinkish-purple in color and swirling like a angry hurricane. "What in the hell...is that?"

"I bet my Spiritbomb here, Liquid, can floor your Arcanine for 1200 Yen...that IS the currency you use, right?"

"Fine. I bet that Archie will beat him back for the same amount."

Takuya briefly considered intervening for the sake of Kris, as he as positive she was just as unsure of everything about this pokemon except for type. By the way it had slipped onto the battlefield, not from a ball but coming from the user as if it had been possessing her, Takuya hazarded a guess that it was a ghost type.

"Archie, hit it hard and fast with Extreme Speed!"

Okay, scratch that. She didn't know or failed to realize it.

"Arc!" The fire-type rushed forward, blazing at a speed that still made Takuya dizzy. It made contact instantly...or at least it should have. Rather, the firedog skidded to a stop behind the opponent, having completely fazed through it like it wasn't there.

"Pathetic. Liquid, hit him with a Shadow Sneak."

"A What?" The two trainers blanked on the meaning of such a move, watching the battlefield for several seconds as nothing seemed to happen. "I think you've lost your-!" Her face contorted into one of shock as a large black 'projection' emerged from the ghost-type, and slammed into the Fire-Dog. "No! Archie!"

"What did I tell you? Wasted talent. Follow it up with Feint Attack!"

"Archie, dodge that and use Flame-Wheel!"

The Arcanine leapt to the side, expecting a hit of some sort as he looked at the surroundings. His opponent seemed to have vaporized. Kris looked side-to-side also, unsure of what to expect until it dawned on her. "Flame Wheel now, Behind you, behind you behindyouBEHINDYOU!" It was fruitless. Before the quadruped could even attempt to burn it's opponent, it was struck in the back by the once 'missing' enemy. Archie leapt back, shaking back and forth to try and shrug off the damage, before letting a stream of hot flame leave its fur, spinning in the air akin to a spiral before impacting it's target.

"So your finally going to put your type to work?" The scorching fire coated the purple fog, enveloping it utterly. "To little to late." 'Liquid' was still standing after the flames attempted to burn it to death. The creature merely hovered, a cackling-like noise emanating from it. "Liquid, hit him with Suckerpunch!"

"Archie, do-Oooohhh." The fire-type dog fell to the ground, rolling breifly on the trail before coming to a stop, the fight and wind knocked clean out of it by the quickly formed fist. "I'm so sorry...I had no idea." The teal-haired female pulled out her pokeball, pulling her primary battler back into it's safety. "You're going to get it now. Wani Wani, You're up!"

A larger-then-before crocodilian creature came forth from the Pokeball as it was kicked by the Johto girl, it's jaw tightly gripped from intensity at it stared down the opposing trainer.

"Spiritbomb, come back! Danyus, it's your turn."

The next foreign creature to emerge was much, much different then the previous one. It had a solid quadruped body, ears and eyes similar to Eon or Jupiter. However, it was a dark brown color, with green protrusions emerging at multiple spots on it's body. Even it's tail and the top of its ears looked like a large green leaves. The eyes were a deep brown, giving it a very earthen like look to it.

"I bet Danyus can floor your Croconaw in three moves, for 1500 Yen!"

"Kris...when did you get a Croconaw?"

"Wani-Wani evolved while I was on my way back from Celadon. Anyways, You're ON! I bet that, type-disadvantage and all, he'll beat your freak of nature for 2000 Yen!"

"Danvus, Bullet Seed!"

"Wani-Wani, use Rage!"

The crocodilian pokemon rushed forward first, bringing his claws down onto the quadreped's neck and back. Wani-Wani would have continued his barrage if his opponent didn't roll away, getting back onto all fours. The Grass-type Eeveelution reared it's head back, letting loose a stream of bright, shiny seeds at the water-based opponet. A single set of seeds would have been deadly enough, but not one, not two, but three swaths of shiny seeds smacked into the yellow and blue Pokemon, sending him stumbling back in agony.

"Wani-Wani, let's get the leg up on him! Rage!"

As if in a frenzy, Kris' fighter rushed forward, claws slamming into the grass-type pokemon, this time drawing blood and injuring him much, much more then before.

"No! Danvus...Use the Magical Leaf!"

"Wani-Wani, dodge that and go in for another Rage attack!"

The Leafeon gingerly got back onto all fours, the last strike from it's opponent having been very critical to it's health. It did have enough focus to rear it's head back, then launch it forward, a series of light green leaves launching from it's leaf-like ears at the opponent. The Croconaw ran to the side, sliding between Kris' legs and taking crazy dodging maneuvers, all the while the attack seemed to follow him.

"Croc-o-nAAAAA!" It was slammed in the back hard by the projectiles, and as they plastered themselves onto him, he collapsed to the ground, knocked out. "Wani...Return..." After recalling her second warrior, the Johto Teenager clenched the ball in her hand gruffly.

"That's 2700 Yen. Show me what other pokemon you've managed to mistrain." The foreigner recalled the grass-type Eeveelution, smirking at the very profitable turn of events.

"Natee, Avenge your comrades."

Takuya held the camera tight, intensely watching the battle that was unfolding. Already two brand new pokemon from foreign regions, and he would be one of the first to document them battling in the Kanto region! If it took off like the video of Jupiter rushing to his protection did, he was going to be set for a looong time. "Scratch that, three Pokemon now."

"I'll bet you 1500 Yen that she'll take you out. Put another 2000 on that I'll floor you in a single strike." The girl's attention went to the other pokemon she had just released. "Nefertiti, show this bitch what it means to fight!"

The white-furred quadruped took it's place opposite of the flying psychic. Takuya thought he had seen one of these blue and white-furred creatures before in documentaries. Disaster Pokemon, known for their bad luck to anyone except their trainers. If the colors it sported wasn't enough of a giveaway, the single sickle-horn on the far right side of it's temple pratically screamed it's existence as an Absol.

"Kris, pull back now! That's a Dark Type Pokemon! Natee will have less of a chance then any of your others!"

"This is my battle Takuya, stay out of it! Natee, use Night-Shade to lop the top of it off!"

"Nefertiti, Charge forward and use Pursuit!"

"...Shit." Kris remarked, just as the distance between her small bird and the anti-psychic became non-existant, Natee instantly becoming impaled by the horn on it's head. It rolled to the side, blood exposed on the side of it's round body.

"Grrrr..."

"Kris, give up! Your hemorrhaging money and killing your Pokemon! This battle is not worth it!" Takuya shouted. He still held the Go-Pro in his hand, watching the battle as it unfolded, but was very concerned for the condition of his partner's team.

"Shut up! I can handle this! I'll earn it all back in the last three battles!" Kris pointed at the female. "Little Miss will floor whoever, whatever, you send out after this!" She looked over her shoulder. "Takuya, cover your ears when I call out moves."

"A Misdreveaus?" The foreigner asked, looking at the screech pokemon with curiosity. "Two can play that game. Drage! Come forth!"

"Same game?"

The fourth foreign pokemon summoned was considerably larger. Still purple, and like it's opponent, floating, it looked like it was adorned in a large cloak over it's dual-segmented body. As if to protect it's head, a large pointed wide brim made up it's head over it's eyes, looking much like a witches' hat.

"Same game alright. My Mismagius, obviously a superior evolution of your underwhelming Misdreveaus, will floor your pokemon in 5 moves. I'll put 1500 yen on that."

"If it's the evolution...Little Miss, hit her hard and fast with Perish Song!"

"Drage, Astonish our little friend, shall we. And if you couldn't tell by the name, Drage is a man, you idiot."

Black waves of energy radiated through the battlefield, quickly dispersing into simple sound waves. Takuya remembered what had been said earlier, and covered his ear, watching as Kris did the same thing.

"Drage, I told you to Astonish!" The foreigner shouted, hands over her ears in a similar fashion.

"Mageee!" The evolved ghost puffed up it's chest, then rushed right infront of it's 'inferior', getting right in it's face. Little Miss fell to the ground and cowered as the intimidating red-eyed, red-mouthed face completely surrounded it's vision.

"Little Miss, snap out of it! No one makes scarier faces then you except for Silver and his ugly mug! Get back at her with a Shadow Ball!"

A round ball of dark energy was launched from the small screech pokemon, and quickly crossed the gap. The time that the foreign female had taken to monologue about gender was enough time for her Ghost-type to be struck by the move. It would have been a powerful by any means, but with Ghosts being weak to Ghost type attacks, the witch-like creature flailed backwards through the sky, trying to regain it's positioning.

"Impressive, but not good enough! Drage, Payback time!"

A ring of energy quickly formed around the witch-like pokemon, released shortly afterwards like a rubber-band. It's impact was also akin to a rubber-band slapping something small, as Little Miss went tumbling through the air several times before regaining her position.

"Little Miss, hit him back with Psybeam!"

"Payback once more Drage!"

The collection of energy at the center of the Misdreaveus' head was for naught. Before the psywave could be released, the burst of energy from the Payback struck her again, and Little Miss collapsed to the ground, knocked out.

"Payback's a bitch, ain't it?" The foreign woman remarked. "Right Drage?" Her ghost-type suddenly collapsed, the effects of the Perish Song kicking in just a little to late.

"Danm it. We couldn't of dragged that battle out one move longer." Kris complained, recalling her loyal ghost.

"Very well. You now owe me 7700 Yen. Are you ready for the next round, or would you rather pay up now?"

Kris gritted her teeth together. "Show me what you've got."

"Bob, it's your time to shine!"

The pokeball that the thus-far victorious women held in her hand released what didn't look like a pokemon, but a household appliance. Specifically, an orange washing machine with eyes. "I really need to figure out how to get you out of that thing..." She remarked.

"I'll bet 5000 yen that my next pokemon will floor that...that...thing!"

"Whoaaa, easy girl! I don't bet THAT high. No higher then 3000, thank you."

"Fine. 3000 Yen that Megaree here..." Kris spiked another pokeball with her shoe, letting it land on the ground and open up to reveal a pale yellow pokemon, almost dinosaurain in origin like a sauropod, complete with a ring of leaves around it's next and another one on the top of it's head. "Will floor your Home Appliance store reject in 3 moves or less!"

"Deal. Bob-"

"Who in the hell names a Pokemon Bob...?" Takuya pondered, watching the scene play out through the lens of his camera.

"Bob, use Thunder-wave. Let's try to paralyze it!"

"Megaree, throw up a Reflect before it's to late!"

"Ree!" A dome-like projection of energy formed in-front of the saurian, protecting her from the incoming burst of electricity, which harmlessly dispersed on the shield. "Megaree, hit him with a Razor Leaf! NOW!" This attack had quite a noteworthy effect, as several large dents erupted in the body of the possessed Washing Machine.

"Danm it! Use Thunder-shock, we might get it paralyzed!"

"Megaree, ready another Razor Leaf..."

The electric pokemon spun wildly, then unleashed a torrent of water at the opponent. Meagree feet dug into the ground as she slid back, the damage taken minimal at worst.

"Now Megaree, hit it fast and hard!"

"Rotom, why won't you listen to me!? You waste of-" The foreign female stopped, taking a deep breath to focus on the battle again. While she did that though, the second round of Razor Leaves impacted the electric ghost's washing machine. "Rotom, Double-Team!" The frustration on the trainer's face returned as a surge of electricity was released from the creature, spilling across the expanse and slamming into the enemy.

"Megaree, are you ok?"

"Bay-"

"This should finish it off then! Hit it with a Mega-Drain!"

A large collection of yellow spores radiated from Kris' fighter, coming toward the opponent with pinpoint accuracy. Almost as if she had given up, the other female made no recourse to have her pokemon avoid it. The spores landed on the orange washing machine, and vanished suddenly. While there was no discernible difference in the way that the Bayleef looked, the difference was discernible for the machine, which toppled forward, the ghost inside of it out of energy.

"Ha! Maybe that will teach you not to be so cocky against us natives here!"

"Bitch, please. It was one battle." The female recalled her pokemon. "You still owe me 4700 Yen, and I'll bet my 3000 yen back that my last pokemon will destroy whatever you have left!"

"That's too high right now." The teal-haired female bartered back. "How about we bust it down to 2300 yen. Deal?"

"You won't even go risky to try and reduce your losses? Fine. Bobbette, come forward!" For the first time, and likely the only time in the battle, the foreign female released a familiar pokemon.

"A Nidoqueen, huh?" Kris chuckled, trying to keep up a confident face. "Megaree, Giga-Drain!"

Just like at the end of the last battle, Megaree didn't seem to change the way she looked or acted at all. However, the opposing female pokemon began swayed a bit, badly hurt by the attack. "Hah! That must have been a critical one!"

"Bobbette, Poision Sting." The rival coolly called out. The large female reptile spat a barrage of bright white spikes at the sauropod, all which impacted her with pinpoint accuracy.

"Megaree, return. Bonee...you're the only option I have left. Come forth!" The Johto girl kicked her last pokeball, releasing the infant-like pokemon. "Bonee, I know this is going to be harder then most other opponents I've had you fight for the short time we've been together, but we're going to get this done now. Club that thing to death!"

The bipedal pokemon uttered a cry from underneath it's worn-out skull, charging forward at the considerably larger blue pokemon.

"Pathetic. Bobbette, Double-Kick."

Takuya tensed at the impact of the technique. The small normal-type was spent flying backwards, tumbling on the ground before landing at Kris' feet. "Bonee! No..." She crouched down to the injured pokemon, picking it up and lightly cradling it in her arms. "You did what you could...I should have quit on the last hand..."

"I guess it's true what she said. We are all addicted to gambling with Pokemon." Takuya remarked, ending the video and turning off the go-pro. "Hope that foreign psycho bitch doesn't come after me about having video of her fighting."

"And that will be 7000 yen, straight up. If you don't have the money on hand, you can write a check now. My name's Chai Dang, and I expect to see payment shortly."

"No...I...I have the money. Just give me a second." She recalled her final fallen fighter into his pokeball, and proceeded to rummage through one of the interetior pockets of her stained labcoat. "20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70-Hundred yen. There. Happy now?" The female coldly asked, planting her palm full of notes into the female's hand.

"Thank you, and yes, I am. But geez, I hope my time here wasn't a complete waste. There had better be SOME challenge worth coming here for." Chai began to walk away, a much more arrogant air about herself then before.

"Sorry about that Kris. It'd be probably best if we get back to Vermillion and see if we can get a spreadsheet for Sinnoh and Honnen Pokemon, along with their various strengths and weaknesses."

"Whatever." she responded. "We win, and we lose, but we've got to keep moving on."

Takuya helped bring his traveling partner up to a standing position. "You sound like you don't believe those words."

"Hey, reciting sayings like that works for Gold, they might as well work for me too." Her defeated response was, and unlike the quick and speedy running from before, she began walking in a dejected fashion down the road, Takuya right behind her.


End file.
